Clinton Vows To Strengthen Syrian Sanctions

(NewsCore) - Outrage mounted Sunday after Russia and China blocked the UN Security Council's resolution on Syria, in what Secretary of State Hillary Clinton described as a diplomatic "travesty."

"Those countries that refused to support the Arab League plan bear full responsibility for protecting the brutal regime in Damascus," Clinton told a press conference while visiting the Bulgarian capital, Sofia, where she vowed the US would ramp up sanctions against the Syrian regime.

Clinton promised that both new sanctions and strengthened existing ones "will be implemented to the fullest to dry up the sources of funding and the arms shipments that are keeping the regime's war machine going."

She urged the "friends of democratic Syria" to unite against the regime of president Bashar al Assad and her sentiments were echoed by her European counterparts.

"Europe will again harden sanctions imposed on the Syrian regime," French Foreign Minister Alain Juppe said on BFMTV television Sunday, according to AFP. "We will try to increase this international pressure and there will come a time when the regime will have to realize that it is completely isolated and cannot continue."

The resolution, condemning the Assad regime for the ongoing violence against protesters in Syria, failed to pass the 15-member council on Saturday after it was vetoed by both Russia and China.

Earlier Sunday, the opposition Syrian National Council (SNC) said the result of the UN vote has given the Assad regime a "license to kill," as the group slammed the vetoes.

"The SNC holds both governments accountable for the escalation of killings and genocide, and considers this irresponsible step a license for the Syrian regime to kill without being held accountable," a statement read.

It also urged the Russian and Chinese governments to "immediately" rethink their positions on the issue and "not [to] block the will of the Syrian people, who clearly desire the attainment of their rights and freedoms."

Russia and China, however, continued to defend the double veto, blaming Western powers for failing to negotiate a deal.

"The authors of the draft Syria resolution, unfortunately, did not want to undertake an extra effort and come to a consensus," Deputy Foreign Minister Gennady Gatilov wrote in a post on Twitter, according to AFP.

The Russian ambassador, Vitaly Churkin, had said the resolution's text would have "sent an unbalanced signal to the Syrian parties" and should have included language that the "Syrian opposition must distance itself from extremist groups."

China's envoy, Li Baodong, said the resolution, as drafted, may "further complicate the situation" in Syria and said that "it is regrettable that these reasonable concerns are not taken into account."

Meanwhile, human rights group the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said Sunday that 19 civilians, including at least four children, and 21 army troops were killed on Sunday, raising the weekend's death toll to nearly 90.

Those deaths come after more than 300 people were reportedly killed during a crackdown Friday by Syrian government forces on the protest hub of Homs -- violence the SNC called "one of the most horrific massacres" since the uprising against Assad began in March 2011.

US President Barack Obama accused the Syrian regime on Saturday of showing a "disdain for human life and dignity" for launching the brutal assault on Homs.

Obama told Assad to stop the killing and step aside to allow for democratic transition, saying he has "lost all legitimacy with his people and the international community."

More than 5,000 people have been killed since the uprising against Assad's rule erupted last March. An exact death toll is not known as reports of deaths in Syria are difficult to verify.