After three days of negotiations on Syria, the UN Security Council failed to persuade Russia, which holds a veto, to back an Arab League plan to try to end the bloodshed in the Middle East nation.

The revised draft resolution revealed at the meetings has taken out all references to President Bashar al-Assad stepping aside, leaving Arab League language to “facilitate” a political transition in Syria. That wasn’t enough to satisfy Russia, which said the proposal still endorsed regime change although not explicitly stating so. 

“This is not done,” U.S. Ambassador Susan Rice told reporters after a third day of discussions. “There are some still-complicated issues that our capitals will have to deliberate on and provide each of us with instructions.”

Nearly a year after the uprising against Assad began, Syria is at the center of a UN debate on how to stop a conflict that the world body says has killed more than 5,400 people and is evolving into a civil war. At stake is how much support to give the Arab League, the regional body that suspended Syria’s membership and imposed economic sanctions on the regime.

While UN diplomats argued over language for a resolution, violence continued by Syrian forces leading to several deaths, the activist group General Committee of the Syrian Revolution reported on its website.

Morocco, the only Arab nation on the UN council, will circulate a final draft and put it to a vote, a sign that Arab nations and their Western allies are unwilling to make any more concessions and may dare Russia to veto the resolution. Talks will be taken up now by leaders of UN members in their respective capitals.

Russia’s Ambassador to the United Nations Vitaly Churkin said earlier an embargo on arms supplies to Syria is out of the question – along with any resolution that could threaten to aggravate conflict in the country.

Churkin, speaking to journalists via video link, spoke out strongly against a possible arms embargo on Syria, citing some countries’ refusal to condemn the armed groups operating there, and the continued risk of weapons supplies reaching these groups despite any ban.

“It seems logical: if there is a conflict, let’s not deliver arms. But we saw what happened in Libya,” Churkin said. “It was forbidden to deliver arms to the government, but everyone under the sun delivered to armed opposition groups; that is what it meant in reality. How then can we break contracts, our years-old relationship with Syria … especially when what we are delivering cannot be used to shoot demonstrators.”

Churkin also said that forcing Security Council members work with “raw” resolutions would be “incorrect and counterproductive.” This, of course, is only the latest page in the ongoing diplomatic battle over the conflict in Syria.

Those in favor of the Western-sponsored draft resolution are calling for Syria’s President Bashar al-Assad to step down, the release of all prisoners and the withdrawal of troops from Syrian cities, among other things.

Russia and China are the only permanent UNSC members out of five to vote against the original Western/Arab League draft, reminding others that it is not the place of the international community to meddle in Syria’s domestic affairs, and warning against a possible repeat of the military invasion in Libya last year.

Ambassador Churkin reiterated Russia’s position, saying that no concessions would be made regarding foreign intervention of any kind in Syria. He also took the time to draw the reporters’ attention to the fact many UNSC members are apparently ignoring the League of Arab States observer mission report on Syria.

The lineup of attendees included U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, the Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Hamad bin Jassim bin Jaber bin Muhammad Al Thani, the Secretary-General of the Arab League Nabil Elaraby, French Foreign Minister Alain Juppe and the British Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs William Hague. 

On Feb. 1 at a signing ceremony with the foreign minister of Singapore, Clinton spoke to Security Council members saying, “Whose side are you on?”  

“Are you on the side of the Syrian people?” she asked. “Are you on the side of the Arab League?  Are you on the side of the people of the Middle East and North Africa who have during his past year spoken out courageously and often for their rights?”

Or, Clinton asked,  ”Are you on the side of a brutal dictatorial regime?”

Collective warnings from the group of Western and Arab League leaders about the deteriorating political and military crises in Syria fell, at least, on one deaf ear: Russia. 

Russia’s unrelenting support for Assad is attributed primarily to its strong military relationship with Syria, including last week’s 550- million-dollar contract to sell 36 Russian fighter planes to Damascus. 

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said in Moscow last month that his country will not support any Security Council resolution aimed at “regime change” in Syria. 

Churkin devoted a lot of his time to the Arab League mission in Syria, and its report – which, according to the ambassador, many Security Council members were happy to overlook. Churkin said that many questioned the necessity of listening to the mission’s chief, Sudanese General ad-Dabi, but at Russia’s insistence, the general will address the UNSC and the observer mission report will be translated into all six official United Nations languages.

Churkin said that any resolution to be passed by the Security Council must take into account the findings of the observer mission, and that Council members must remember that as with any armed conflict, there is an information war going on in Syria. “We all understand that in conflict situations like these – for a long time now – there is an information war going on as well. Different media resources are being used to present information in a biased way. And the Syrian conflict is ongoing partly because the information that comes out is often very biased.”

The Arab League observer mission spent a month in Syria, after which Syrian authorities extended their stay for another month. Overall, approximately 100 observers toured the country in the hopes that their presence would help stop the bloodshed that began in March 2010, when protesters rose up against President Assad’s government. Their mission, criticized by many for failing to provide any tangible results, was halted last week amid escalating violence in Syria – but the observers remain in the country, hoping to continue their work.

Overall, the diplomat said that Russia won’t soften its stance on issues it considers key – but still hopes for a peaceful solution to the crisis. “I feel inspired that our partners, knowing our ‘red lines’, still say ‘we will work to achieve a consensus,” Russia’s UN envoy told journalists from New York.

The previous UNSC session, held on Tuesday, saw heated debates and calls for stopping “the Syrian killing machine.” Numerous accusations of crimes against its population were leveled against the Assad government, justifying the rallying cry of “Assad must go” voiced by Western countries and their allies for several months now.

When most nations talk about sovereignty, they seem to think that “sovereignty is good for friends” while “compliance is good for enemies,” believes Benjamin Barber, a senior fellow at the American think-tank Demos.

“Right now, Russia is defending the sovereignty of Syria,” he said. “Whether it would defend the sovereignty of other nations less friendly to its interests is unclear. But in the meantime, the U.S. and the West generally – and many Arab countries like Qatar – are in effect saying, ‘Syria has no right to sovereignty. It’s the role of the United Nations to force compliance with their directives.’”

“They are now calling for regime change, and that does seem to exceed any reasonable standard of the sovereign rights of the country to make its own decisions about the government,” he added. 

Diplomats at the United Nations Security Council reportedly agreed to drop demands for an arms embargo against Syria after deliberations at the UN. 

The Security Council could soon reach a consensus on a Syria resolution, current council president Kodjo Menan said on Thursday. Security Council members want “swift action” on the issue, Menan said, but added that there is no deadline for such a decision.

The news follows days of heated political debates in the UNSC, with many members supporting a Western-backed draft calling for foreign nations to put an end to what some called the “Syrian killing machine.”

Russia and China were the only permanent Security Council members opposing the latest draft, reminding others that it was not their place to intervene in the domestic affairs of another country.

Russia’s permanent envoy to the United Nations Vitaly Churkin earlier said any proposals including an arms embargo or a demand for Assad’s resignation would be vetoed.

Diplomatic insiders say there are currently two draft resolutions on the table in the UNSC. The proposal put forth by Morocco, the only Arab state on the Security Council, is opposed by Russia and China over provisions for foreign intervention in what both Moscow and Beijing call a ‘domestic’ affair. The two states had previously vetoed a similar resolution, fearing its passage would cause a repeat of the Libyan scenario with another NATO military incursion.

In turn, some UNSC members said the Russian proposal was far too soft to have any effect on the conflict in Syria. Russia’s Ambassador to the UN stressed the hope for a consensus on the matter, but noted it was too early to talk about a vote.

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and her Russian counterpart, Sergei Lavrov, may have the final word. They will have the opportunity to discuss the latest draft when they attend a gathering of top national security officials in Munich this weekend.

Arab leaders have started to lose patience with UN deliberations and Russian reluctance to sign the draft.

“The Arab League can’t compromise on some points,” such as its request that the UN back its road map for a transfer of power in Syria, Qatar’s prime minister, Hamad Bin Jasem al- Thani, told Al Jazeera television today. “If there is any compromise, we told them they can use the veto; we will not accept any blurry resolutions,”

On Thursday, Russia also said that it will continue selling arms to its longtime ally Syria. Deputy Defense Minister Anatoly Antonov said his country is not violating any international obligations. Russia seems intent to remain firm in its stance against any arms embargo, as confirmed by Lebanese politican Wiam Wahhab, who is pro-Syria. Wahhab had a meeting with Assad on Tuesday in Damascus according to a report from the AP. 

“I found him relaxed and sure. He is confident in the Russian position,” Wahhab told the Lebanese newspaper Al-Akhbar in an interview published Thursday.

-TAAN, RT, Bloomberg, The Independent