Violence intensified in Syria after the February 4 vote at the UN Security Council Courtesy of the UN

Poland, through its embassy in Damascus, has agreed to serve as the United States’ protecting power in Syria, and will assist US citizens remaining in Syria by providing emergency consular services.

“Poland will spare no effort to ensure the representation and protection of US interests in Syria, as was the case between 1991 and 2003 in Iraq,” the Polish Foreign Ministry said in a statement. The US embassy in Damascus suspended its operations on February 6, and all US diplomatic personnel have withdrawn from Syria.

“I thank our trusted Polish allies and friends for assuming this important responsibility in support of America and its citizens. On behalf of President Obama and Secretary Clinton, I thank President Komorowski, Prime Minister Tusk, Foreign Minister Sikorski, and the people of Poland for this act of friendship and solidarity,” American Ambassador to Poland Lee Feinstein said in a statement.

Meanwhile the US, the EU and their allies in the Arab world are discussing what steps to take after China and Russia vetoed a UN Security Council resolution to back an Arab League plan to resolve on the Syrian crisis on February 4.

“We are continuing to work with allies and partners around the world, particularly in the Arab world and in Europe. Now that the UN Security Council action has been blocked by the double veto we are compelled to work outside the UN system,” US State Department spokesperson Victoria Nulland told journalists last Thursday. As WBJ went to press it was unclear what this cooperation might entail.

An unnamed senior EU official told the Associated Press that the bloc would adopt further sanctions against Syria at the EU foreign ministers meeting scheduled on February 27.

Last Friday marked a week since Syrian forces had begun bombarding the city of Homs, Syria’s third-largest city and the hub of the current uprising. New York-based NGO Human Rights Watch said that on-site observers confirmed Syrian forces were launching long-range indirect fire attacks into densely populated areas, resulting in multiple civilian casualties, while at the same time preventing civilians from accessing food and medical treatment.

“It is clear the Syrian government has interpreted the Russia-China veto as a carte blanche to launch an all-out assault on cities like Homs without caring who’s killed in the process,” Anna Neistat, associate emergencies director at Human Rights Watch, said in a statement last Thursday.

Polish Foreign Minister Radosław Sikorski said on Monday that Russia and China would have further bloodshed in the country “on their conscience.”

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s regime has been accused of cracking down violently on anti-government protests for over 10 months. Human rights officials from the United Nations estimate that over 5,000 people have been killed since the beginning of the crisis in Syria in March 2011.