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Summary The U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. says the veto will likely lead to an escalation of violence.
The United States Ambassador to the United Nations said the Russian and Chinese veto of a U.N. resolution that would have backed an Arab plan urging Syrian President Bashar al-Assad to give up power was disgusting and shameful.Speaking to an NBC news crew, Ambassador Susan Rice defended her statement in the Security Council on Saturday following the double veto.On Saturday, Rice said, The United States is disgusted that a couple members of this council continue to prevent us from fulfilling our sole purpose here, addressing an ever deepening crisis in Syria and a growing threat to regional peace and security.On Monday, while speaking to NBC News, Rice said, I was expressing what I think is the shared frustration of the Syrian people, the American people, and the publics of countries all over the world represented on that council, that Russia and China by their veto made it impossible for the council to support an Arab League plan for a peaceful democratic transition,She added, The fact that Russia and China chose to align themselves with a dictator who is on his last legs rather than the people of Syria, rather than the people of the Middle East, rather than the principled views of the rest of the international community, was indeed disgusting and shameful and I think that over time it is a decision theyll come to regret when there is a democratic Syria that wont forget this action.Moscow will offer its own mediation - in the person of Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and its intelligence chief who are to meet Assad on Tuesday, fulfilling a pledge last week to seek a negotiated end to the bloodshed.Inaction, in contrast to what Foreign Minister Lavrov said, did not take us any further from civil war, it took us closer, added Rice.
