Foreign ministers express disappointment over U.N. resolution

Turkey’s foreign minister Ahmet Davutoglu, along with Arab foreign ministers, expressed their disappointment on Sunday over Russia and China’s veto of the United Nation’s resolution calling for Syrian president Bashar al-Assad to give up power.

“We don’t want Cold War logic in international systems. Unfortunately yesterday in U.N., the Cold War logic continued. The U.N. Security Council unfortunately did not own the issue of this transformation and Russia and China did not vote based on the existing realities, but more reflexive attitude against West or against certain demands. Here the question is: the veto powers should not be used from this perspective. Arab League and the only non-Arabic country of Syria, Turkey, is backing one resolution. We will pay the price, the Arabs and Turkey,” Davutoglu said.

“We are having a meeting next Saturday in Cairo of the Arab League Foreign Ministers. We will evaluate the situation of what happened in the Security Council and hopefully with the endorsement of the whole world for the Arab League efforts, we will be successful to achieve a solution, a peaceful solution. Bloodshed has to stop, this is a tragedy that cannot be allowed to continue in our midst,” said Mohamed Amr, Egypt’s Foreign Minister.

Russia’s ambassador to the United Nations, however, called the U.N. resolution improper and biased while his Chinese counterpart, Li Baodong said the divided votes would not help resolve the issue.

The draft resolution which was pushed by Morocco called for an end to the violence in Syria which has persisted for 11 months. It did not include any sanctions or military intervention.

This is the second veto of a U.N. resolution on Syria whose violence has claimed the lives of over 5,000 people.

Speakers:

Ahmet Davutoglu - Turkish Foreign Minister
Mohamed Amr - Egyptian Foreign Minister