Syria and the Politicization of Human Rights: Double Vetoes and Paralysis at the UN Security Council

Veto of Two Conflicting Draft Resolutions on Humanitarian Aid

 “The current situation in Syria is precisely caused by the erroneous actions of some countries.  It is these countries that should really reflect on and answer the series of questions before us.  If they really care about the Syrian people and the humanitarian situation in Syria, why don’t they vote for the Russian draft resolution?  They have every opportunity to fulfill their promise to the Syrian people.  This also shows once again that their concern is hypocritical and they are pursuing typical double standard, which is a concrete manifestation of politicizing humanitarian issues.”  (China’s Ambassador to the UN Zhang Jun)

In 1990, when the USSR was collapsing, and China not yet a world power, the US succeeded in manipulating the Security Council to pass Resolution 678 which led to the destruction of the infrastructure necessary to support human life in Iraq.

Again, in 2011, before Putin and Xi Jinping became heads of state in Russia and China, the West succeeded in manipulating the Security Council to pass Resolution 1973 which “authorized” the destruction of Libya, ostensibly for “humanitarian” purposes. Or as Indian Ambassador Puri said, “Responsibility to Protect” was used as a camoflage to “bomb the hell out of Libya.” Libya is now also an incubator of terrorism.

Soon thereafter, in fact within months,  Syria began suffering destabilization, social chaos, and great concern for “human rights violations” in Syria was voiced in the Security Council.  This time, Russia and China were aware of the ploy, and the three historic double vetoes, cast by Russia’s late Ambassador Vitali Churkin and China’s former Ambassador Li Baodong, prevented the “humanitarian corridor” (in reality a Trojan Horse) the West tried to force through Syria.

However much one might have hoped that the demolition of state structures in the Middle East would have ended there, in the six years since those famous double-vetoes had been cast, the vicious attempt to turn Syria into a failed state, or a demolished state, (such as Iraq and Libya have become, facilitating the theft of their oil and other resources) the struggle continues, Syrians are dying, fleeing the rubble of what had been their homes, their lives destroyed in this ruthless, incessant war, as Russia and China are now attempting to prevent Syria from descending into intolerable ruin, which  will inevitably result if President Assad falls in the vile game of regime change.

Syria: “humanitarian aid” used as a camouflage for invasion

After the famous double-vetoes by Russia and China in 2013,  one would have hoped that the situation in Syria would have stabilized.  Instead, the conflict is escalating.  Though humanitarian aid is crucially needed by the Syrian victims of this proxy war, the fact that “humanitarian aid” is used by the West as a camouflage for invasion, leading to regime change, has been exposed.  Thus, two draft resolutions were presented at the Security Council on December 20, one by Germany, Belgium and Kuwait and one by Russia and China.  Both draft resolutions were vetoed.

The Syrian representative, Mr. Talouh stated:

“great regret over the  obstinacy of certain Council members, notably the co-pen holders, in pursuing an unbalanced approach that led to a proposal that, because of its content, is a departure from declared humanitarian purposes.  In addition, the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs has been manipulating data;  assistance falls into the hands of armed terrorists, rather than those who actually need it.  Al-Nusra Front, for one, depends on humanitarian assistance coming in from Turkey.”

Mr. Talouh asked “how those who claim to be concerned at the people of Syria can turn a blind eye to the pillaging of gas and the occupation by American forces.”  He emphasized that the “focus of humanitarian assistance for Syria is in Damascus,” further emphasizing that his  “Government is the main partner in humanitarian endeavors. National sovereignty must be respected.”

Unilateral Sanctions on Iran. Threats Directed against China 

Though the trajectory of the West in 2011 seemed to be the destruction of Iraq, Libya, Syria, and ultimately Iran, prior to those famous double-vetoes by Russia and China in 2013, it is possible that the West never abandoned that deadly trajectory.

Now, with unilateral sanctions on Iran creating chaos and misery for the people of Iran, and the US evidently attempting to reproduce in China the “full court press” that Sean Gervasi brilliantly demonstrated played so decisive a role in the disintegration of the Soviet Union, the prognosis, on a global scale is dismal.  This NED supported “Full Court Press” on China includes: the instigation of terrorist and separatist movements in Xingjang, the prolonged provocation of “color revolution” in Hong Kong (there are 1,000 U.S. diplomats at the U.S. Embassy in Hong Kong – why are so many needed in that tiny location?), the sale, by the US of fighter jets to Taiwan, the infamous enlistment of Tibet’s Dalai Lama by the CIA, etc.

The territory of China is being assaulted on the West, East, South and North.

Though the Chinese leadership are undoubtedly aware of the menacing thrust, it will require the strategy of genius to halt this “full court press.”  On a global scale, the proxy conflict in Syria is a miniscule example of what may become a global conflict between the forces of progress and the reactionary powers imposing Milton Friedman’s neoliberal “economic genocide” as far as their military enables them to do,  with the enticing lure of pillage an irresistible seduction, regardless of the risk of global annihilation, should actual (and inevitably nuclear) war ensue.

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Carla Stea is Global Research’s correspondent at United Nations Headquarters, New York, N.Y. She is a Research Associate of the Centre for Research on Globalization (CRG).

Featured image is from edgarwinkler / Pixabay


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Articles by: Carla Stea

About the author:

Author and Geopolitical analyst Carla Stea is Global Research's Correspondent at United Nations headquarters, New York, NY.

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