UN Security Council members have agreed upon the text of a draft resolution on Syria and will send the document to governments for approval, Russia’s UN envoy Vitaly Churkin said.
“We have the text which we shall send to our capital cities and will wait for the result," Churkin told journalists after a four-hour meeting at the Security Council that took place on Thursday behind the closed doors.
He noted, however, that the agreement on the resolution "does not predetermine its fate in any way.”
Western media reported on Thursday that a UN resolution on Syria has been toned down in an apparent attempt to overcome Russia’s objections to an earlier draft.
The new document, reports said, no longer calls for President Bashar al-Assad to step aside and hand over power to his deputy, which was a key part of an Arab League plan to end bloodshed in Syria.
Moscow has been one of al-Assad's staunchest supporters during the ten-month-long uprising against his regime. Russia along with China already vetoed a European-drafted resolution containing the threat of sanctions against Syria in October 2011.
At least 5,400 people have lost their lives in the Syrian government's crackdown on protesters, according to UN estimates. Syrian authorities blame the violence on armed gangs affiliated with al-Qaeda and say more than 2,000 soldiers and police have been killed.
