UN role is to ease tension in Syria: FM

BEIJING - China said on Wednesday relevant actions taken by the UN Security Council should be conducive to easing the tension in Syria.

Foreign Ministry spokesman Ma Zhaoxu made the remarks after Russia and China, permanent members of the UN Security Council, on Tuesday vetoed a draft resolution, which meant to strongly condemn "the continued grave and systematic human rights violations by the Syrian authorities" and threatened punitive measures against the Middle East country.

"We hope relevant actions of the UN Security Council should help ease the tension in Syria, promote political dialogues to defuse differences, and maintain peace and stability in the Middle East," Ma said in a statement.