ERBIL, Kurdistan Region — China and Russia vetoed a United Nations (UN) Security Council's draft resolution backed by the United States, the United Kingdom and France to impose sanctions on the regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad over the use of chemical weapons, according to the UN News Centre.
Moscow's Deputy Ambassador to the UN Vladimir Safronkov described the defeated proposal as a "provocation to discredit the government of Syria and its armed forces."
It was Moscow's seventh veto in favor of Assad over the past six years and China's sixth, as the two permanent UNSC members have saved Syrian regime from international sanctions since war has broken out in the country in 2011.
However, the draft would have imposed sanctions on 21 Syrian individuals and organizations believed to have been involved in chemical weapon attacks.
US Ambassador Nikki Haley called the Council’s decision an “outrageous and indefensible choice” and called the proposal "very appropriate."
"It is a sad day on the Security Council when members start making excuses for other member states killing their own people. The world is definitely a more dangerous place," Haley said.
Of the 15-member council, nine voted in favor of the motion. Bolivia also voted against the motion while Egypt, Ethiopia and Kazakhstan abstained.
The draft resolution also called into question the Assad regime’s declarations regarding its chemical stockpiles, calling for further investigation.
Last month, the United States also issued financial sanctions against 18 senior Syrian regime officials, specifically citing independent investigations which revealed chlorine gas attacks in 2014 and 2015.
A joint investigation by the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons and the United Nations found that the Syrian government, specifically the Syrian air force, was responsible for three chlorine gas attacks in Tell Mannas on April 21, 2014, and in Qmenas and Sarmin on March 16, 2015. All three cities are in northwest Syria, south of Aleppo.
