MOSCOW, June 4 (UPI) -- Parties to the U.N. Human Rights Council are triggering a militarization of the conflict in Syria with their report on the massacre in Houla, Russia said.
The U.N. Security Council last week passed a resolution condemning the massacre of more than 100 people "in the strongest possible terms."
The Human Rights Council, in a vote of 41-3, passed a measure calling for an independent investigation into the events at Houla. French officials, during debates last week, said it was recommending a referral of Syria to the International Criminal Court.
"The council owed it to the people assassinated by a dictatorship that sought only its own survival and that nobody could support any longer," a readout of the French position stated.
Moscow condemned the attack but said it was "seriously concerned" that some countries were determining guilt before a full investigation was concluded. The Russian Foreign Ministry, in a statement, said it opposed of the use of the Human Rights Council.
"Our country speaks against involving the U.N. Human Rights Council for 'triggering' a use-of-force scenario in Syria," the statement read, as published by RIA Novosti.
Meanwhile, Syrian President Bashar Assad told lawmakers in his first speech since January that he was defending his country against domestic terrorists.
Today we are defending a cause and a homeland," he was quoted by the official Syrian Arab News Agency as saying. "We are not doing what we are doing because we love blood."
