Russian ambassador Vitaly Churkin raises his hand to veto a draft resolution on Syria, in the U.N. Security Council on February 4, 2012. China also vetoed the resolution, while the remaining 13 council members voted in favour. (AP Photo/Jason DeCrow)

(CNSNews.com) – Following Saturday’s U.N. Security Council showdown over Syria, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has raised the idea of like-minded countries uniting outside the U.N. to ramp up the pressure on President Bashar Assad to step down.

Moscow and Beijing sought to justify their decision to veto a draft resolution backing an Arab League proposal calling for Assad’s departure. With 13 “yes” votes in the 15-member council, the measure would have passed with strong support had it not been for the double veto.

The rare move – Russia and China have only cast double vetoes five times in the U.N.’s history – drew a heated response from the resolution’s backers, particularly coming as it did amid reports of heavy clashes in the city of Homs, described by some as the deadliest incident yet in the 11-month crisis.

“Faced with a neutered Security Council, we have to redouble our efforts outside of the United Nations with those allies and partners who support the Syrian people’s right to have a better future,” Clinton said Sunday.

“We have to increase diplomatic pressure on the Assad regime and work to convince those people around President Assad that he must go,” she added.

Speaking in the Bulgarian capital, Sofia, Clinton said the U.S. would work with “friends of a democratic Syria around the world,” noting that support for the resolution had come from Security Council members from all continents.

“Remember, in those 13 votes you had not only Europeans, but you have Arabs, Africans, Latin Americans, South Asians. This was a unified international community seeking an end to the violence.”

This photo provided by the opposition Local Coordination Committees shows Syrian mourners gathered around the coffins and bodies of victims killed early Saturday during a mortar and rocket bombardment in Homs. Activists claim that more than 200 people were killed. (AP Photo/Local Coordination Committees)

Clinton said the U.S. would work to broaden and strengthen sanctions against the regime, deny it funds and arms, and “work to expose those who are still are funding the regime and sending them weapons that are used against defenseless Syrians, including women and children.”

Russia and China say they were “compelled” to veto the resolution because its backers were not willing to accept amendments proposed by Russia. The foreign ministry in Moscow expressed unhappiness that the draft “included a long list of demands addressed at the Syrian government.”

Chinese U.N. envoy Li Baodong said that “to put undue emphasis on pressuring the Syrian government, prejudge the result of the dialogue or impose any solution will not help resolve the Syrian issue, but instead may further complicate the situation.” He also claimed that “many council members” shared that view – despite the fact that Russia alone joined China in voting against the resolution.

Both sides in the dispute have raised the specter of civil war: Clinton warned that failure to start a process leading to a transition will “increase the chances for a brutal civil war,” adding that “many Syrians, under attack from their own government, are moving to defend themselves, which is to be expected.”

But her Russian counterpart, Sergei Lavrov, suggested the conflict has already reached that stage. He told a security conference in Germany ahead of the vote that unless the draft resolution addressed not just the Syrian government but also armed opposition groups “you are taking sides in a civil war.” Lavrov is due to visit Damascus on Tuesday.

Public reaction to the outcome in New York prompted protests – some of them violent – at Syrian embassies in several European and Arab capitals, while property was damaged at missions in Canada and Australia.

In Syria, by contrast, state media reported on demonstrations by citizens praising Russia and China for their support “in the face of foreign conspiracy.”

“They raised national, Chinese, Russian flags and banners appreciating the patriotic role of the Syrian Army who has proved bravery in the face of foreign plots and the heinous acts of the armed terrorist groups,” the official SANA news agency reported.

Tunisia’s new government severed diplomatic ties with Syria in response to the veto and the violence in Homs, and urged other countries to follow suit.

Assad’s closest ally welcomed the double veto. Iranian Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi said the Security Council had become “a tool in the hands of western countries, used to bully other countries.”

Some Mideast analysts see the Syrian uprising as part of sectarian maneuvering in the region, with Sunni powers, especially Qatar and Turkey, seeking the removal of an Iranian-backed government headed by a minority Shi’ite sect, and its replacement with a Sunni regime.

Tehran appears to share that view.  In an interview with the Lebanese Shi’ite Hezbollah’s al-Manar television network on Saturday, Salehi issued a warning to Qatar – a driving force behind the Arab League’s anti-Assad stance – “against crossing red lines and reaching the point of no return.”

--Previous joint vetoes cast by China and Russia/the Soviet Union:

October 2011 (violence in Syria)
July 2008 (rights abuses in Zimbabwe)
Jan 2007 (abuses in Burma)
Sept. 1972 (Middle East, 1967 ceasefire violation)