Originally published on the CGS blog on July 19, 2012.
It’s hardly surprising at the point, but no less sad and infuriating. Once again, Russia and China have used their permanent veto-wielding power on the U.N. Security Council to protect Syrian President Bashar al-Assad rather than the citizens his regime continues to butcher.
In another double-veto today, Russia and China voted against a Security Council resolution which would have threatened the Syrian regime with sanctions in an effort to end the bloodshed there which has gone on for more than a year and killed at least 14,000 civilians. It’s not the first time Russia and China have vetoed efforts to stop Syria’s crimes against its people; they’ve been standing in staunch opposition to any such action by the international community for months now. And whether it’s the result of Russia’s ties to the Assad regime, a belief that the U.N.-approved campaign in Libya last year overreached its mandate, or the fear of what message international efforts in Syria might send to their own restive populations at home, ultimately means very little.
What matters is that the Syrian peace process continues to fail, and two-fifths of the Security Council continues to shield a tyrant and international pariah who happens to be a head of state.
Given the rapid-fire pace of recent events in Syria, with the killing of several top-level government officials by rebels this week, it is possible that the Assad regime may not last much longer anyway. But whatever the outcome, Russia and China’s behavior in this situation has been outrageous. As permanent Security Council members, they should be living up to their responsibility to protect innocent victims of genocide who cannot protect themselves. Instead, they continue to prioritize protecting Assad and his cronies. It’s a deplorable state of affairs, any way you look at it.
