The UN system is outdated, several of the organization’s rules do not reflect the needs of present times, Syrian National Council chief Abdel Basset Sayda said on Thursday following talks in Rome with Italian Foreign Minister Giulio Terzi.

He made this statement shortly after Russia and China vetoed a Western-backed UN resolution on Syria over fears that it could lead to foreign military intervention in the violence-wracked Middle East country.

“The situation can no longer develop in that way. The UN rules are outdated,” he said.

If “Russia continues providing heavy weapons to the Syrian regime and giving political cover to the Syrian regime through the Security Council… things will spiral out of our control and the consequences will be disastrous both for Syria and for the region as a whole," Sayda said.

Sayda emphasized that in his view the Syrian regime is “in its final days.”