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Russia Draft to Deploy 300 to Syria Wins 15-0, France Dropped Human Rights

By Matthew Russell Lee

UN System, April 21 -- After Russia on circulated a draft resolution to deploy 300 military observers to Syria, and France then followed with its own draft speaking of human rights -- which it opposes in the pending Western Sahara resolution -- the US State Department told Inner City Press it believed there was only one draft.

  And soon that became true: France dropped human rights, and the call for "independent" air asset the the threat of action under Article 41 of the UN Charter if the Assad government does not comply.

  And so on Saturday morning, after the surreal read out of a statement on the coup d'etat in Guinea Bissau, the Security Council adopted the Russian introduced draft, now with further co-sponsors, by a vote of 15 - 0.

Russia's Ambassador Vitaly Churkin spoke first after the vote, saying that the Libya model is a thing of the past. Indeed. France's Gerard Araud spoke next, bloviating about things dropped from the resolution, such as the possibility of sanctions.

Ironically, the Guinea Bissau Presidential Statement explicitly mentioned the possibility of targeted sanctions. But it came out of the Syria resolution. And so it goes at the UN. Watch this site.