Addressing the U.N. General Assembly approved an Arab-backed one-sided resolution Wednesday calling for a political transition in Syria, Ja’afari said the resolution seeks to escalate the crisis and fuel violence in Syria by legitimizing the provision of weapons to the opposition and illegally recognizing a single faction of the opposition as the legitimate representative of the Syrian people.
The resolution, which is not legally binding, was approved by a vote of 107-12 with 59 abstentions.
It welcomes the establishment of the Syrian National Coalition, the main opposition group, ‘‘as effective interlocutors needed for a political transition’’ and notes ‘‘wide international acknowledgment’’ that the group is the legitimate representative of the Syrian people.
Russia’s deputy U.N. ambassador Alexander Pankin also sharply disagreed, calling the resolution ‘‘very harmful and destructive’’ and accusing its Arab sponsors of using it as a way to replace the Syrian government — not to find a political solution to the crisis.
Pankin strongly criticized the resolution for disregarding ‘‘illegal actions of the armed opposition’’ and blaming the worsening human rights situation entirely on the Syrian government.
Argentina tried to get Qatar, which led Arab negotiations on the resolution, to address violence by the opposition and weaken the language so the resolution wouldn’t look like an endorsement of the Syrian National Coalition. But Qatar refused.
So Argentina abstained along with Brazil and more than a dozen other Latin American and Caribbean countries. They were joined by South Africa and about 20 other African states as well as India, Indonesia and half a dozen Asian and Pacific nations.
Iran, Bolivia, Venezuela, North Korea, Belarus and other delegations that tend to oppose U.S. policy at the United Nations also voted no. Ecuador, which abstained last year, said it voted against the resolution because it feared it legitimized a coup and wondered "who will be the next country on the list."
Wednesday's vote came as Washington and European governments have been mulling the benefits of supplying arms to Syrian terrorist groups.