Inner City Press -- Investigative Reporting From the Inner City to Wall Street to the United Nations

On Syria, UK Proposes 30 Day "Final" Extension of UNSMIS After Vetoes

By Matthew Russell Lee, Partial exclusive

UNITED NATIONS, July 19 -- Minutes after Russia and China voted against the UK table resolution under Chapter 7 of the UN Charter, another Security Council member exclusively told Inner City Press that the UK has already tabled - and put into blue - another resolution, to extend the UNSMIS mission for a "final" thirty days.

  The Security Council member told Inner City Press that only way UNSMIS would be extended beyond that thirty days is if Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said there were positive developments and the Security Council agreed. "Very tricky," the member described these conditions.

Inside the Council chamber, the speeches continued. US Ambassador Rice called this a dark day for Turtle Bay, and said the US will now work with other to put pressure on Assad.

South Africa, which abstained, said that the resolution was one sided, and couldn't sanction the opposition to get them to support the six point plan.

China's Li Baodong asked the Western members to agree to extend UNSMIS. Watch this site.