France will put a Syria resolution to a vote at the UN Security Council after it enlists the support of India, South Africa and Brazil, French Foreign Minister Alain Juppe said on Tuesday.
“As of now we have nine votes. We need to convince South Africa, India and Brazil,” he told the National Assembly of France as the 15-nation Security Council reached a deadlock.
“If we have 11 votes we will put this draft resolution to a vote and see whether Russia and China will wield their veto power.”
He said Britain and the United States were working along the same lines.
He offered no indication of when the draft could be put to the vote.
According to Reuters, France’s UN envoy appealed to Brazil on Monday to support a European draft resolution that would condemn Syria for its bloody crackdown on anti-government demonstrators.
Brazil, India and South Africa have voiced reservations about the resolution drafted by Britain, France, Germany and Portugal.
Syrian rights organizations have estimated that some 1,300 people have been killed and more than 10,000 arrested in Syria since protests demanding the end of President Bashar al-Assad’s authoritarian rule broke out in the country in mid-March. Foreign journalists are banned from entering the country which makes it difficult to verify the figures.