British and American envoys to the United Nations on Friday welcomed the General Assembly resolution on Syria that condemns the 17-month crackdown by the government of Bashar Al-Assad. In a statement after the vote, U.S. Ambassador Susan Rice said, “The United States welcomes the strong message that the United Nations General Assembly delivered today both to the Syrian regime and to the Syrian people." “Today's General Assembly resolution, supported by an overwhelming majority of U.N. member states, strongly condemns the Syrian authorities' increasing use of heavy weapons and its ongoing and intensifying human rights abuses," Rice added. Rice also said that while the United States will work within the United Nations to end the violence and it will also work with partners outside the U.N. framework. Speaking to reporters after the vote, British Ambassador Mark Lyall-Grant said, “This is a tough resolution and the fact that 133 members of the United Nations voted in favor of it shows the revulsion at what is happening in Syria held by the majority, the vast majority, of members of the United Nations."
