T

he UN Security Council is failing the Syrian people. As far as most Syrians are concerned, the 15-member body charged with maintaining global peace and security may as well be called the insecurity council.

The Council’s failure on Tuesday to pass a resolution, which had been carefully couched in the most diplomatic terms, is sending the wrong signal to President Bashar al-Assad’s government, which has been cracking down against the largely unarmed and peaceful protesters demanding freedom and democracy. The one last hope that the people of Syria have: namely, moral support from the world community, has been effectively dashed. They are practically on their own, as they have been all these months since the crackdown began in March. The rest of the world can only watch, and pray that things will get better for them.

The 9-2 vote with four abstentions failed after Russia and China vetoed it. The Syria resolution had been drafted by European countries with the support of the United States. After days of intense negotiations, they eventually agreed on a final text that had been severely watered down, precisely to avoid the risk of being vetoed.

At the most, it condemned the widespread violations of human rights and the use of force against civilians. The other points were expressions of concern and appeal for a peaceful resolution. It made no mention of any embargo or specific action to be taken against the regime even if the resolution was supposed to be binding. It did not even invoke the UN principle of the responsibility to protect, which recognizes the international community’s obligation to intervene in cases of mass murder and genocide, through diplomatic or military means.

This final text is nowhere near the March resolution that had given the pretext for NATO to intervene in Libya. At that time, both China and Russia abstained from the vote, and later were highly critical of NATO’s military action in Libya. Given the current economic conditions of most NATO members, and the drawn-out Libya campaign, it is clear that they have neither the appetite, nor the capacity, to launch a similar military operation against Syria.

In vetoing the resolution, Russia and China did not provide a credible proposal of their own to stop the atrocities that are continuing in Syria. We now have to turn to Turkey, one of the most vocal critics of the Syrian regime, and other countries in the region, to try to persuade the Syrian government to stop the killings.