New | China, Russia snub UN Security Council talks on Syrian aid
Veto-wielding powers are no-shows at key meeting on resolution that hopes to impose sanctions on Syria if it does not improve access to humanitarian relief
Russia and China on Monday rebuffed the United States, France, Britain and other states by failing to attend negotiations on a draft UN Security Council resolution to boost humanitarian aid access in Syria, diplomats said.
Australia, Luxembourg and Jordan on Thursday presented their draft to the five veto-wielding council powers and were due to meet with them on Monday, but Chinese ambassador Liu Jieyi and Russia’s UN ambassador, Vitaly Churkin, did not attend.
With Beijing’s support, Russia has shielded Syria on the UN Security Council during the country’s three-year-long civil war. The pair have vetoed three resolutions condemning the regime of President Bashar al-Assad and threatening it with possible sanctions.
This text is not going to be adopted, let me tell you
The latest version of the draft aid text puts most of the blame for the humanitarian crisis on the Syrian government, and expresses an intent to impose non-military sanctions on individuals and entities obstructing humanitarian aid if certain demands in the resolution are not met within 15 days of its adoption.
A senior Chinese diplomat said he was unaware of a meeting on the draft resolution.
Churkin, meanwhile, was more direct, saying that a meeting had not been necessary because the text was “beyond redemption”. He said that Russia would veto the Western- and Arab-backed draft resolution if it was put to a vote: “This text is not going to be adopted, let me tell you.”
He suggested the move was designed to “whip up political tensions around Syria and this is not what we need now, especially in the context of the Geneva 2 negotiations and also for the purpose for the practical needs of the humanitarians.”
A second round of Syria peace talks – known as the Geneva II talks – got off to a shaky start on Monday, with the two sides complaining about violations of a local ceasefire and an Islamist offensive respectively in separate meetings with the international mediator.