UNITED NATIONS // Russia and China on Tuesday vetoed a UN resolution backed by western powers that would have imposed sanctions on Syria over chemical weapons use.
The measure drafted by Britain, France and the United States won nine votes in favour at the Security Council while three countries opposed it — China, Russia and Bolivia. Kazakhstan, Ethiopia and Egypt abstained.
Russia had said the vote on the resolution would harm UN-led peace talks between the warring Syrian parties in Geneva, which began last week.
To be adopted, UN resolutions require nine positive votes and no vetoes by the US, France, Russia, Britain or China.
It was the seventh time that Russia, Syria's top military ally, has used its veto power to shield the Damascus regime. China joined Russia in vetoing six resolutions on Syria.
Russian president Vladimir Putin had warned that imposing sanctions on Syria during continuing peace talks in Geneva was "completely inappropriate" and would undermine the effort to end Syria's nearly six-year war.
"This resolution is very appropriate," US ambassador Nikki Haley told the council after the measure was defeated in the vote. "It is a sad day on the Security Council when members start making excuses for other member states killing their own people. The world is definitely a more dangerous place."
French UN ambassador Francois Delattre said the security council's failure to act would "send a message of impunity".
Russia's deputy UN ambassador Vladimir Safronkov described the statements made against Moscow in the Security Council as "outrageous".
The resolution would have put 11 Syrians, mainly military commanders, and 10 entities linked to chemical attacks in 2014 and 2015 on a UN sanctions blacklist. It would also have banned all countries from supplying Syria's government with helicopters, which investigators have determined were used in chemical attacks.
The measure followed a UN-led investigation which concluded in October that Syrian government forces were responsible for three chlorine gas attacks.
The joint panel of the United Nations and the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) found that the Syrian air force had dropped chlorine barrel-bombs from helicopters on three opposition-held villages in 2014 and 2015. It also concluded that ISIL militants had used mustard gas in an attack in 2015.
The vote was one of the first confrontations at the United Nations between Russia and the US since president Donald Trump took office in January, pledging to build closer ties with Moscow.
British UN ambassador Matthew Rycroft told the council before the vote: "This is about taking a stand when children are poisoned, it's that simple."
Chlorine's use as a weapon is banned under the Chemical Weapons Convention, which Syria joined in 2013. If inhaled, chlorine gas turns to hydrochloric acid in the lungs and can kill by burning lungs and drowning victims in body fluids.
Syrian president Bashar Al Assad's government has repeatedly denied using chemical weapons in the war that has killed 310,000 people since March 2011.
Russia has questioned the results of the inquiry and long said there was not enough proof for the Security Council to take any action.
* Agence France-Presse and Reuters
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