Vitaly Churkin, Russia’s representative at the UN General Assembly, told the body after the vote that his country voted against the resolution because it did not incorporate amendments that it had proposed that would make it more “balanced”. Russia has said that the resolution, a version of which it vetoed at the Security Council, is too one-sided, and does not apportion the correct degree of blame for the violence to the armed opposition.  

China’s representative said that the resolution amounted to undue interference in the affairs of a sovereign state.

Bashar Jaafari, Syria’s ambassador to the UN, declared just before the vote that the resolution was a form of unwarranted intervention in his country’s internal affairs.

“Some of the co-sponsors would like to settle accounts with Syria,” he told the General Assembly, alleging that the resolution was motivated by the wider and long-running Middle East conflict.

To adopt the resolution, 10 days before a referendum on a new constitution for “a modern democratic Syrian state,” he said, “will only lead to a tightening of the crisis and more tension in the region.”

The United Nations, Jaafari added, was in danger of being used by “some member states” as a way to provide cover for “armed terrorist groups.”