India abstains from voting against Syria at UNSC

NEW DELHI: India on Wednesday abstained from voting on a UN Security Council resolution that threatened action against Syria. The draft resolution for punishing Syria for its crackdown on pro-democracy activists could not pass muster as Russia and China, both permanent members of the Security Council, vetoed the European-backed resolution.

Apart from India, countries that abstained from voting were Brazil, Lebanon and South Africa. India has been coordinating its position with BRICS. The US, UK, Germany, France, Nigeria, Portugal as well as Bosnia and Herzegovina voted in favour of the resolution. The draft resolution condemned the violent crackdown by President Bashar Al-Assad's forces against pro-democracy protesters and demanded immediate end to the violence.

India's Permanent Representative to the UN Hardeep Singh Puri said that actions of the international community should facilitate an engagement of the Syrian government and the opposition in a Syrian-led inclusive political process and not complicate the situation by threats of sanctions, regime change. “The resolution under the Council's consideration does not accommodate our concern about threat of sanctions. It does not condemn the violence perpetrated by the Syrian opposition,” Singh said.

There was considerable pressure from the US for backing Washington’s line against Syria. In an interview with CBS News last month, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton had lashed out against Indian and Chinese involvement in the oil and gas industry in Syria, a key source of revenue. “We want to see India take steps towards imposing sanctions alongside the US because India and China have large energy investments inside of Syria,” Clinton had said.