UN General Assembly passes anti-Syria resolution

United Nations General Assembly, February 16, 2012

Source: Press TV
http://www.presstv.ir/detail/227078.html

The United Nations General Assembly has adopted an Arab League-sponsored resolution on Syria for what it calls the government's crackdown on opposition protests.

On Thursday, 137 members of the UN voted in favor of the resolution while 12 members including Russia and China voted against the measure.

The non-binding resolution was drafted by the Arab League and backed by the United States and Britain.

The Syrian ambassador to the UN, Bashar al-Jafari, dismissed the resolution as biased and unbalanced.

Jafari said that Damascus has the right to protect its citizens against what he called armed gangs. He blamed the violence on armed terrorist groups and added that no country would tolerate the presence of such groups on its soil.

The General Assembly resolution has no real power without a similar vote in the UN Security Council.

The Arab League had sent a resolution to the Security Council earlier this month which called on Syrian President Bashar al-Assad to step down. That resolution was vetoed by Russia and China rejecting it as “unbalanced”.

Syria has been experiencing unrest since mid-March 2011.

The government blames ''outlaws, saboteurs, and armed terrorist groups'' for the violence, insisting that it is being orchestrated from abroad.