BEIRUT/WASHINGTON: An armed insurrection inside Syria looks set to gather momentum after the failure to pass a UN resolution against president Bashar al-Assad’s regime, according to dissidents in two key Syrian cities.

Activists from Homs and Hama, where mostly peaceful protests over the past six months have lately become more aggressive and armed, say the failure of the US effort to threaten sanctions against Syria has convinced some that diplomacy cannot protect them.

“There’s no way out of this except to fight,” said an activist from Homs. “For the people of Homs the international community are not with us and we know that for sure. Russia and China will continue to protect Assad and as long as that happens, he will hunt us down.”

Britain, France and the US are expected to seek a fresh resolution on Syria before the UN Security Council after Russia and China on Tuesday night vetoed a draft that threatened sanctions, a Security Council source said on Wednesday.

The veto by Russia, supported by China, provoked the biggest verbal explosion from the US at the UN for years, with its ambassador Susan Rice expressing outrage over the Moscow and Beijing move.

Rice also walked out of the Security Council, the first such demonstration in recent years.

While walkouts are common at the UN general assembly, they are rare in the Security Council.

“It will not go away,” the source said. “It will not be next week. We don’t have a date. But there are a number of ways the Security Council can get back to this.”

The vote was 9-2 in favour, with four abstentions: South Africa, India, Brazil and Lebanon. The draft resolution on Tuesday only said the Security Council would “consider its options” in 30 days’ time if Assad failed to stop the violence and seek a peaceful settlement of the crisis.

It said the options would include sanctions. To further water down the resolution in an attempt to make it more acceptable to Russia and China, there was no hint of military intervention.

In Homs, where government forces are routinely clashing with armed members of the opposition — many of them former soldiers who defected with their weapons — outgunned protesters are now openly seeking weapons from outside the country.—Dawn/Guardian News Service