Russia has blocked a meeting of the United Nations Security Council to discuss the human rights situation in Syria.
Deputy Permanent Representative of Russia to the UN, Gennady Kuzmin said, they do not see any justification for the meeting since human rights is not a subject on the agenda of the Council. Russia is the largest international backer of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.
France and six other members had called for the meeting, which was expected to include a briefing from the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Zeid Ra'ad al-Hussein.
China, Bolivia and Kazakhstan voted with Russia to prevent the meeting, while Ivory Coast, Equatorial Guinea and Ethiopia were abstentions.
Those who voted to hold the meeting alongside France were the United Kingdom, Sweden, Poland, Holland, the United States, Peru and Kuwait.
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