A child carries a poster showing Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin during a protest outside the Russian Embassy in Kappara, outside Valletta, February 12, 2012. Syrians and other Arabs living in Malta protested outside the embassy on Sunday after China and Russia vetoed a UN resolution condemning Syria for its deadly crackdown on protests, according to the local media. (Reuters Pictures)Russia and China are on the wrong side again. Not surprisingly.
CAIRO (Reuters) - The Arab League threw its support on Sunday firmly behind the opposition mounting an uprising against Syria's President Bashar al-Assad, and called for the U.N. Security Council to send peacekeepers to halt bloodshed.
A resolution approved by Arab League ministers meeting in Cairo called for "opening communication channels with the Syrian opposition and providing all forms of political and material support to it." It also urged the Syrian opposition to unite.
The resolution solidifies Assad's ostracism among his Arab neighbors and will add to diplomatic pressure on Russia and China, which vetoed U.N. action on Syria on February 4, to lift their objections and allow the world body to act.
It said violence against civilians in Syria had violated international law and that perpetrators deserved punishment. It scrapped an Arab League monitoring mission.
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