A Syrian army tank moves along a road during clashes with army defectors now fighting against the regime, in Homs province on Monday Jan. 30, 2012. (AP Photo)

(CNSNews.com) – “We stand with you,’ Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said in a message to Syrian protesters as she prepared to join her British and French colleagues and the head of the Arab League in a concerted push Tuesday to secure a U.N. Security Council resolution condemning the Assad regime.

Russia, however, is standing firm in opposition to the Western-Arab initiative, continuing to insist that any resolution calling for President Bashar Assad’s departure is doomed.

Moscow on Monday offered to act as a mediator in talks between the government and the anti-Assad opposition. The regime accepted while opposition figures declined the proposal – an unsurprising outcome, given Russia’s steadfast support for the Syrian leader throughout the 10-month crisis.

What began in mid-March 2011 as a crackdown on protestors calling for reform has increasingly taken on characteristics of an armed civil conflict, pitting the regime against a grouping of opposition-linked military defectors and others known as the Free Syrian Army. The U.N. says more than 5,000 lives have been lost, and according to Clinton “hundreds of civilians” were killed in the past few days alone.

Tuesday promises a diplomatic standoff in New York. Although an Arab League-backed draft resolution reportedly has the support of 10 Security Council members – the required minimum is nine – Russia as a veto-wielding permanent member could kill the effort. China also has been leery, but for now it appears willing to allow the Kremlin to lead the push-back.

White House press secretary Jay Carney suggested that those opposing a strong Security Council resolution are simply delaying the inevitable.

“As governments make decisions about where they stand on this issue and what further steps need to be taken with regards to the brutality of the Assad regime, it is important to calculate into your considerations the fact that he will go,” Carney told a press briefing. “The regime has lost control of the country and will eventually fall.”

Syria’s foreign ministry responded hours later by saying Damascus was not surprised at “the absence of wisdom and reasonability of these statements” but regretted that they were coming from “countries accustomed to making the Middle East a field for their foolishness and failing experiments.”

Syria would prove to be “the exception that has defeated and will defeat the policies of chaos adopted by those countries,” a spokesman said through the SANA state news agency.

Syrian army defectors, now supporting the opposition and fighting against the regime, patrol a street in Homs province on Wednesday Jan. 25, 2012. (AP Photo)

In line with a recent Arab League proposal, the draft resolution calls for a “political transition” in Syria.

Clinton will be in New York on Tuesday, along with the French and British foreign ministers, the prime minister of Qatar and Arab League Secretary-General Nabil Al-Arabi.

After months of criticism over its failure to respond to the crisis, the Arab League deployed a monitoring mission and put forward a plan for a “peaceful” transition that would require Assad to hand the reins to a deputy ahead of the creation of a unity government and elections.

Damascus rejected the proposal, and the monitoring mission was suspended at the weekend.

Qatar heads an Arab League committee focusing on the Syria issue, and at one point called for Arab states to send troops into Syria.

In a bid to avoid a Russian or Chinese veto, the resolution’s backers are expected to water it down, ensuring there is nothing in the wording that could be viewed as laying the groundwork for eventual intervention.

Russia has expressed concern that a resolution could open the door to military action. It cited last year’s crisis in Libya, where Moscow said NATO’s operation exceeded the mandate of a March 2011 Security Council resolution that authorized a no-fly zone.

Moscow and Beijing also oppose U.N. sanctions, so any reference in the draft resolution to possible “further measures” should Syria not comply, will also face difficulties.

Old allies

“The Security Council must act and make clear to the Syrian regime that the world community views its actions as a threat to peace and security,” Clinton said before heading to New York.

“The status quo is unsustainable,” she said. “The longer the Assad regime continues its attacks on the Syrian people and stands in the way of a peaceful transition, the greater the concern that instability will escalate and spill over throughout the region.”

State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said Clinton has been “burning up the phone lines” as the U.S. works to build support for the resolution. She had not spoken to her “apparently unavailable” Russian counterpart, Sergei Lavrov, however, despite having tried to reach him by phone for about 24 hours.

Russia maintains its opposition to international steps against Syria arises primarily from sovereignty concerns, but Moscow’s close relationship with Damascus stretches back decades, and Russia today remains Syria’s closest ally, after Iran.

Syria under Assad’s long-ruling father, Hafez Assad, was a strategic ally of the Soviet Union during the Cold War although ties weakened after the Soviet disintegration.

In 2005 Bashar Assad visited Moscow, securing a write-off from then President Vladimir Putin of the bulk of Syria’s Soviet-era debt in return for Russian weapons contracts. The next five years saw bilateral trade double, reaching $1 billion in 2009.

The Russian naval fleet uses the Syrian port of Tartus, and in 2008 began upgrading Soviet-era facilities there.

In 2010, President Dmitry Medvedev paid the first visit by a Russian leader to Syria in almost a century, and agreed to sell Assad fighter planes, surface-to-air missile systems and armored vehicles.

Just days ago, Russia agreed to sell Damascus 36 combat training jets and earlier this month Russian warships paid a three-day port visit to Tartus, making its “business as usual” stance clear despite the violence.