The United Nations General Assembly passed a resolution Wednesday, drafted by Qatar, calling for political transition in Syria. The Arab-backed draft was passed after five revisions by the General Assembly as the earlier ones had used harsh language.
Among the 193 member countries of the General Assembly, 107 voted in favor of the draft, 12 against it and 59 abstained. A similar kind of resolution was passed earlier as well, which had earned the support of more countries than the present one.
The Syrian government was totally against the resolution as it heavily backed the Syrian National Coalition, which is the major opposition party in Syria.
Bashar Ja'afari, the Syrian Ambassador to U.N., voted against the resolution by saying that it violates the Russian-American rapprochement, which is equally supported by Syria.
"It is running against the current, especially in the light of the latest Russian-American rapprochement, which the Syrian government welcomed," said Ja'afari, reported Reuters.
Whereas, Rosemary DiCarlo, the U.S. Deputy Ambassador was of the opinion that the resolution is nowhere a hindrance in the Russian-American rapprochement effort to bring peace in Syria.
"I'm convinced a lot of countries voted for [last year's] text because they believed they were voting for the winning side," said a senior Western U.N. diplomat in connection to the August 2012 resolution, reported Reuters. "They are not so sure anymore."
"Now also you have the Islamist, terrorist factor which is much more conspicuous," he further added.
Among the countries who opposed the resolution are Iran, Bolivia, Venezuela, North Korea, Belarus and Ecuador including Russia and China. Ecuador had abstained from the resolution last year. This is the third time when Russia and China have voted against a U.N. resolution on Syria.
"Forcibly pushing forward the vote is not conducive to the unity of the member states and the mediation efforts made by the UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and the international community to solve the crisis in Syria," Li Baodong, China's permanent representative to the United Nations was quoted as saying by the official Xinhua news agency.
The media reports suggest that Indonesia abstained from the resolutions because of its support to the Syrian opposition.
Iranian ambassador Mohammad Khazaee said in a statement that the rebel forces are using chemical weapons in the ongoing crisis, for which the Assad government is being widely criticized by the international community.
Khazaee's argument contradicts the stand maintained by the Syrian National Coalition, which accuses the Assad regime of using chemical weapons against the Syrians.
According to a report by the The Wall Street Journal, the resolution largely condemns the atrocities committed by the forces loyal to President Assad and does not reflect properly the violence committed by the anti-government rebel forces, which according to U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights is aggravating.
There are wide spread reports that on Wednesday the rebels attacked one of the prison in Aleppo to free political prisoners who had been locked there. The prisoners were anti-government and were locked up because of their support for regime change in Syria.
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