Syria’s unrest continues and now Russia has involved itself in the preservation of the al-Assad regime by announcing it is moving warships into Syrian territorial waters to prevent any intervention in Syria’s domestic situation by foreign powers like NATO or Turkey. During the overthrow of Qaddafi, NATO warships and planes provided great assistance to the rebels and were perhaps what was needed to push the regime over the edge. Russian President Medvedev says this will not be the case with Syria. After being suspended from the Arab League because of its conduct against its own people during the course of the unrest, al-Assad’s regime has found its list of allies shrinking daily. A United Nations resolution was submitted condemning human rights violations in Syria and was sponsored by the Germany, Britain, France, Morocco, Qatar, Jordan and the United States among others. Because of the U.N. Security Council’s inability to take action against Syria due to the inevitable veto against said motion from either China or Russia, the General Assembly is the proper forum for moving such things forward as no council of states wields veto power against resolutions passed by the General Assembly. At the same time, the resolutions of the General Assembly have little effective value and serve more as position statements.

[Haaretz]