Moscow offers Syrian resolution

UNITED NATIONS, Dec. 16 (UPI) -- In an about-face, veto-wielding Russia tabled a draft resolution at the U.N. Security Council calling for an end to the violence in Syria.

Russian Foreign Ministry spokesman Alexander Lukashevich said Moscow was warning that foreign intervention in Syria would make matters worse but said the violence in the country must come to an end.

The draft "demands that all parties in Syria immediately stop any violence, irrespective of where it comes from," text supplied to Bloomberg News stated.

Various world bodies, including the Arab League and European Union, condemned Syria for the bloodshed, which, the United Nations said, left more than 5,000 civilians dead since mid-March.

The Security Council hasn't been able to maneuver around objections from Russia and China, which say they are concerned a resolution would lead to a situation like the NATO-led intervention in Libya.

Members of the opposition Syrian National Council have scheduled a meeting in Tunisia to discuss what happens if Syrian President Bashar Assad falls. They've said, Bloomberg reported, that Russia doesn't have a solid grasp of the severity of the Syrian violence.

Assad's regime maintains that it's dealing with an insurgency tacitly supported by foreign interventionists. Moscow, which has supplied military equipment to Syria, says any resolution shouldn't include sanctions or advocate an invasion

"Nothing in this resolution shall be interpreted as an authorization of any sort of military action in Syria by anyone," the draft reads.