Russia seeks new strategy on Assad, China defends veto

Syrian forces killed 50 people in Homs bombardment  Damascus , Cairo, Paris –  Akram Ali with Marina Monsif Chinese state media on Monday defended Beijing’s veto in the UN Security Council of a resolution against Damascus. China Daily newspaper wrote that the resolution, which was blocked by Beijing and Moscow, was supposed to exert pressure on Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad’s regime which is seen as an “obstacle” to Western strategy in the Middle East. The document “did not adequately reflect the state of affairs” in Syria, the paper said. It recalled that after the intervention in Libya, “instead of democracy and freedom… Libyan people cannot even live in peace.”
The daily also calls the Russian position “reasonable,” adding that Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and Mikhail Fradkov, the director of Russia’s Foreign Intelligence Service, will meet with Syrian president on February 7.
The resolution, if passed would have backed an Arab-proposed plan to urge Assad to step down.
Russia’s UN ambassador Vitaly Churkin justified the move by saying the proposed resolution “sent an unbalanced signal to the Syrian parties.”
Russia had complained that the draft resolution was an improper and biased attempt to “change regime” in Syria, which is Moscow's sole major Middle East ally, an important buyer of Russian arms exports and host to a Russian naval base.
Churkin’s Chinese counterpart Li Baodong said pushing through such “a vote when parties are still seriously divided ... will not help maintain the unity and authority of the Security Council, or help resolve the issue.”
However, the international community reacted with anger at the double veto, the second by the two countries since the beginning of the Syrian crisis a year ago.
On Sunday night, a report from Reuters said that Russia may be seeking a "controlled demolition" of Syrian Assad's rule to save its sole major ally in the Arab world against Western rivals when its foreign minister and spy chief hold rare talks in Damascus this week.
Moscow announced the high-stakes mission hours on Saturday hours before its veto.
US Secretary of State Clinton announced on Monday that Washington will expose those backing the Assad government in Syria. "We will work to expose those who are still funding the regime and sending it weapons that are used against defenseless Syrians, including women and children," Clinton told reporters in Sophia, Bulgaria. "And we will work with the friends of a democratic Syria around the world to support the opposition's peaceful, political plans for change."
 A day after Russia and China vetoed the UN resolution, Clinton called the quashing a "travesty" that would "actually increase the chances for a brutal civil war."
"Many Syrians, under attack from their own government, are moving to defend themselves, which is to be expected," she said.
UN leader Ban Ki-moon expressed deep regret, saying that the veto undermined the role of the United Nations, according to a statement.
British Foreign Secretary William Hague said Russia and China had “sided with the Syrian regime and its brutal suppression of the Syrian people in support of their own national interests.”
Mohammed Loulichki, the UN ambassador of Morocco, the sole Arab member of the 15-nation council, voiced his “great regret and disappointment” at the veto and said the Arabs had no intention of abandoning their plan.
French president Nicolas Sarkozy said Paris was already consulting with Arab and European countries to create a “friends of Syria” contact group to find a solution to the crisis.
Earlier, French Foreign Minister Alain Juppe denounced China and Russia’s veto, saying it “paralysed” the international community.
“It is a heavy responsibility because of course that paralyses the international community,” he told France 2 Television
“I understand it even less given that we made great efforts to accept the amendments presented by Russia and by China,” he added.
“There was no arms embargo, no sanctions, no call for Bashar Al-Assad’s departure in this resolution,” he said, listing the concessions that Western powers had made in their bid to pass the resolution.
“We could not go further,” he said.
Within the same context, Arab leaders and officials attacked the UN after the veto, as Tunisia urged the world to cut diplomatic ties with Syria.
Tunisian Prime Minister Hamadi Jebali said Moscow and Beijing’s actions showed the veto system of the Security Council was flawed and said the two countries had “misused” their right to block the resolution against Syria.
“Undoubtedly the international community has to reconsider this mechanism of decision taking,” said Jebali.
Turkey’s foreign minister, Ahmet Davutoglu, said that “Cold War” logic had prevailed in the Security Council and that Russia and China “did not vote on existing realities.”
The draft resolution, put forward by Morocco, had called for an immediate end to all violence. It did not impose any sanctions, nor did it authorise military action.
For his part, Arab League Secretary General Nabil Al-Arabi stressed that Arab countries would pursue efforts to solve the Syrian crisis
Arab foreign ministers are to meet on February 11 to discuss the crisis and take new decisions to deal with the developments.
Meanwhile, Syrian forces bombarded the city of Homs, killing 50 people on Monday morning in a sustained assault on several districts of the city which has become a centre of armed opposition to Assad's
regime.
Syrian activist network the "Local Coordination Committees" however estimated that 19 people were killed so far, rather than the opposition's approximation of 50. The BBC also reported that mortars were falling "every 30 seconds" since 6am Mondya morning and that troops were gathering outside te city.
The bombardment came a day after the US promised harsher sanctions against Damascus in response to the Russian and Chinese vetoes of the draft UN resolution.
Activists also said Zabadani, a town north-west of Damascus near the Lebanese border which has been largely under the control of Assad's opponents for several weeks, had come under fire on Monday. Activists also reported that Assad forces are using multiple rocket-launchers against people.
Damascus has denied being responsible for both attacks, blaming "armed terrorist groups" said state news agency SANA.Activists said that more than 200 people were killed on Friday night when tanks and artillery blasted the Khalidiya neighbourhood of Homs.
It was the highest reported death toll in a single day since the uprising against Assad's rule, inspired by uprisings across the Arab world, erupted last March.
Damascus denies firing on houses and says images of dead bodies on the Internet were staged. Reports from activists and authorities are hard to verify because Syria restricts access for independent media.
The latest assault, which began shortly after 2am (midnight GMT) , appeared to be more widely targeted, with explosions in Khalidiya, Baba Amro, Bayada and Bab Dreib neighbourhoods, the activists said.
In addition to those killed, 150 people had been injured.
In the meantime, an explosion ripped through an oil pipeline feeding a main refinery in the city of Homs on Monday, residents and activists said.
The explosion is the second in a week to hit the pipeline, which carries crude oil from the eastern Rumailan field, and it occurred in the district of Bab Amro, an opposition stronghold under heavy tank and mortar bombardment and rocket fire by Assad's forces, they said. Both the opposition and the government are accussing each other of attacking.
The Free Syria Army, the armed Syrian opposition formed by army defectors and volunteers, also stepped up its attacks on army outposts throughout the country in an attempt to stop Assad's army from continuing its brutal crackdown on anti-government protesters that has claimed the lives of more than 6,000 Syrians since March 2011.