The crisis in Syria took center stage at the U.N. Security Council as representatives from the Arab League, the U.S. and other Western countries pushed for a resolution that would ask Syrian President Bashar Assad to step down. But Russian and Chinese envoys warned they would veto any resolution that paved the way for an outside intervention. Speaking at the U.N., U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton insisted that the world was not "headed toward another Libya." (A Security Council resolution last March served as the basis for the sustained NATO campaign that helped topple Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi.) In close to a year since protests erupted against Assad's rule, at least 6,000 Syrians have been killed. In the environs of the capital, Damascus, security forces loyal to Assad clashed with defectors, who have banded together to form what they call the Free Syrian Army. Observers warn of the likelihood of a full-blown sectarian civil war, pitting the remnants of the Assad regime—dominated by the country's Alawite and Christian minorities—against the long-disaffected Sunni Muslim majority. As the diplomats duke it out in New York City, things in Syria may get much worse before they get better.
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