Syria: Russia, China may veto new UN resolution

Saudi Arabia, backed by the West and the majority of Arab countries, is hoping the document will be presented before the UN General Assembly, as opposed to the Security Council. Unlike the council, no country has the power of veto in the assembly, but its resolutions have no legal force.

Little in the text appears to have changed since the previous presentation. The resolution lays the blame for the Syrian violence, which has taken thousands of lives, at the door of President Bashar al-Assad. It also calls for him to step down before a transitional period to a democracy.

Early signs suggest that the new document will suffer the same fate as the previous one. Russia’s deputy foreign minister, Gennady Gatilov, has already dismissed the resolution as "the same unbalanced draft resolution text."

In an interview, Sara Marusek, a researcher from Syracuse University, said the re-submission is "not unexpected. It doesn’t seem like the West is ever willing to negotiate and compromise."

"They are interested in regime change in Syria, and they will not stop until they deliver a different government that is more sympathetic to Western interests, which is quite naïve. Any new government will also not be sympathetic to US and Israeli aggression in the region."

Meanwhile fighting continues in Syria itself. Government forces are besieging the city of Homs, the heartland of the uprising against al-Assad. Heavy artillery is being used to shell residential districts where the rebels are quartered.

There are no reliable figures on the numbers of casualties due to an absence of independent observers, though they are expected to be in double figures.

Meanwhile, the rebels have struck back, assassinating an army general in the suburb of the capital, Damascus.