Russia to Veto Any 'Unacceptable' Syria Resolution, Paris Says Death Toll at 6,000

Russia will use its veto to block any U.N. Security Council resolution on Syria that it deems to be unacceptable, Moscow's envoy to the United Nations said on Wednesday, as Paris said Russia has now a "less negative" attitude towards a draft resolution proposed by the West and the Arab League.

"If the text is unacceptable then we will vote against," Vitaly Churkin was quoted as saying by the RIA Novosti news agency.

"We will not allow a text to be adopted that we consider to be incorrect and will lead to a deepening of the conflict. We are openly telling our partners this."

Russia has exasperated the West by refusing to back a resolution proposed by Morocco, on behalf of the Arab League, and backed by Western powers seeking an end to the bloodshed in Syria and calling for President Bashar al-Assad to step down.

Moscow has also introduced its own draft resolution but this found little support from the West as it repeated the Russian position of blaming the Assad regime and the opposition equally for the violence.

Churkin said that Russia was pushing for a text "in which it would be clear that no foreign military intervention will be used in the context of the Syria crisis."

Russia, the main foreign weapons supplier to Syria, was also strongly against the inclusion of even the "hint of a (weapons) embargo" against Damascus in the U.N. resolution.

French Foreign Minister Alain Juppe said earlier Wednesday that Russia was showing a "less negative" attitude towards the U.N. Security Council resolution. Churkin said he was encouraged that the West was now at least listening to its position.

"It encourages me when our partners know about our red lines and say that we will reach a consensus. I think that they are ready to take account of our red lines," said Churkin.

But Churkin also complained that there was an "unpleasant, ethically ugly, unprofessional game" surrounding the debates at the U.N. Security Council.

"For the first time, the attitude of Russia and the BRICS (China, India and South Africa on the Security Council) is less negative," the French foreign minister told MPs, also announcing a death toll of 6,000 since the uprising began in mid-March.

The previous toll, from the U.N., was 5,400 killed, but activists say hundreds more have died in recent clashes between President Bashar al-Assad's security forces and rebel fighters of the Free Syrian Army.

"We have unfortunately until today been blocked at the Security Council by Russia's veto threat and the hostility of what are known as the BRICS," Juppe said, briefing ministers on his return from the U.N. in New York.

"So we will work relentlessly in the coming days to try to agree a resolution that will allow the Arab League to put all its efforts into finding a solution. A window of hope has opened," Juppe said.

Juppe said the overall death toll was 6,000, including 384 children, according to UNICEF, as well as 15,000 prisoners in regime jails and 15,000 refugees who have fled the country.

Earlier on Wednesday, Russia said that the U.N. Security Council would not hold a vote on a resolution on the violence in Syria in the next days, as world powers seek to find agreement on a text.

"Attempts are being made to find a text that is acceptable to all sides and would help find a political solution for the situation in Syria. Therefore there is going to be no vote in the next days," Deputy Foreign Minister Gennady Gatilov told the Interfax news agency.

Gatilov argued that there was currently no text being discussed at the Security Council that could be described as a "document on which a vote could take place".

"Consultations are continuing," he added.

Gatilov also reaffirmed Russia's position that the Western-backed resolution in its current form is "not acceptable" as it would lead to sanctions against Syria and could be interpreted as allowing the use of force.

"We reject any moves for sanctions and any attempts to use the Security Council to fuel the conflict and justify an eventual foreign military intervention," he said.

Analysts have said that Russia is defying the West despite the escalating violence in Syria as it fears Assad's departure would cost Moscow its last remaining ally in the region.

The Kremlin appears concerned to prevent a repeat of the conflict in Libya where a NATO air campaign led to the ousting of its ally Moammar Gadhafi and the loss of key arms contracts for the Russian weapons industry.

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, backed by her French and British counterparts and Qatar's premier, led the charge on Tuesday for a tough U.N. resolution that would call on Assad to end the bloodshed and hand over power.

"We all know that change is coming to Syria. Despite its ruthless tactics, the Assad regime's reign of terror will end," Clinton told the U.N. Security Council.

"The question for us is: how many more innocent civilians will die before this country is able to move forward?"

Analysts warn that the conflict, between a guerrilla movement backed by growing numbers of army deserters and a regime increasingly bent on repression, has largely eclipsed the peaceful protests seen at the start of the uprising.

"It is the beginning of an all-out armed conflict," said Joshua Landis, head of the Center for Middle East Studies at the University of Oklahoma.

"We are heading toward real chaos," he added. "The Syrian public in general is beginning to (realize) that there isn't a magic ending to this, there isn't a regime collapse."

The United Nations says more than 5,400 people have been killed in Syria since the pro-democracy uprising began in mid-March.

But U.N. human rights chief Navi Pillay said on January 25 her organization had stopped compiling a death toll for Syria's crackdown on the protests because it is too difficult to get information.

Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Hamad bin Jassem al-Thani, speaking at the Security Council on behalf of the Arab League, said Assad's regime had "failed to make any sincere effort" to end the crisis and believed the only solution was "to kill its own people."

"Bloodshed continued and the killing machine is still at work," he said.

But Russia, a longstanding ally of Assad and one of the regime's top suppliers of weapons, declared that the U.N. body did not have the authority to impose such a resolution. China voiced support for Russia's position.

Moscow's ambassador to the U.N. argued that Syria should "be able to decide for itself" and said the council "cannot impose the parameters for an internal settlement. It simply does not have the mandate to do so."

The key sticking point appeared to be the Arab League call for Assad's speedy departure. "Regime change is not our profession," Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said during a trip to Australia.

The draft resolution, introduced by Arab League member Morocco, calls for the formation of a unity government leading to "transparent and free elections."

It stresses that there will be no foreign military intervention in Syria as there was in Libya, which helped to topple Moammar Gadhafi.