Thirteen of the council’s 15 members voted yesterday for a French-drafted text calling for The Hague-based court’s prosecutor to investigate all warring parties. Russia and China, two of the five permanent council members with veto power, blocked passage of the resolution.
Russia and China, whose ties were bolstered on May 21 by a $400 billion gas deal, had blocked three previous council actions threatening sanctions against the regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, Russia’s top Mideast ally and weapons buyer.
Referring the Syrian crisis to the international court wouldn’t have helped end the violence and would have laid the ground for military intervention, Russian Ambassador to the UN Vitaly Churkin said. He criticized his counterparts for pushing ahead with the vote although they knew it would be vetoed.
