China said Wednesday a U.N. Security Council resolution it vetoed threatening action against Syria for its deadly crackdown on protests would have "blindly" pressured the Arab nation and not helped.

The comments came after Russia and China blocked a Security Council motion calling for "targeted measures" if Syria's President Bashar Assad pursues his clampdown, which the U.N. says has left at least 2,700 dead.

Russia and China on Tuesday vetoed a U.N. Security Council resolution threatening action against Syria's deadly crackdown on protests, opening up bitter international divisions over the Arab Spring.

Amid new deaths in Syria and new threats of individual sanctions, the veto sparked the outrage of European nations, which proposed the resolution, and the United States, which said the council had "utterly failed to address an urgent moral challenge."

Syrian Grand Mufti Ahmed Badreddin Hassoun’s son and history professor Mohammed al-Omar were killed on Sunday by “gunfire from a group of armed terrorists,” Syria's state news agency SANA reported.

Saria Hassoun and al-Omar were attacked while traveling in the professor's car on the Aleppo-Idlib road in northwest Syria, it said, after having earlier reported that the grand mufti's son was injured and was admitted to Idleb National Hospital.

Representatives of Syria's six-month-old protest movement joined opposition parties in Turkey on Saturday to forge a united front against Bashar Assad's regime after violence claimed at least 19 more lives.

Clashes between security forces and deserters killed 11 people in a village in Hama province on Friday, while another eight died during a crackdown on protests in flashpoint Homs, human rights activists said.

The U.N. Security Council concluded talks on Syria Wednesday without an agreement on a new resolution, after Russia slammed Europe's effort to threaten sanctions against Damascus.

The 15-member Council discussed rival draft resolutions on the Syria crisis drawn up by France, Britain, Germany and Portugal on one side and Russia on the other.

Premier Najib Miqati has denied that U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton had warned him about certain measures on Lebanon if Lebanese authorities reject U.N. Security Council action against Syria over its violent crackdown on protestors.

“First there was no warning and second we don’t need any warning because no one knows Lebanon’s interest better than us,” Miqati told pan-Arab daily al-Hayat in an interview published Thursday.

France's U.N. envoy warned late Tuesday that Iran faces the risk of a military strike if it pursues its nuclear drive because certain countries would not accept it having an atomic weapon.

In surprisingly frank comments at a New York panel discussion, Ambassador Gerard Araud followed up on President Nicolas Sarkozy's statement that there could be a "preventive strike" against the Islamic republic.

Prime Minister Najib Miqati stressed on Tuesday that Lebanon is always committed to implementing international resolutions, including respecting the Special Tribunal for Lebanon, which was stipulated in a number of Lebanese government policy statements.

Miqati stressed that “if Lebanon does not secure the necessary funding for the STL, then the country will be the first victim”, adding that “We are on the verge of extending the STL work in March, and we should prepare our files to present it to the Security Council”.

Aoun renewed on Tuesday his opposition to the Special Tribunal for Lebanon, rejecting attempts to fund it.

He said after the Change and Reform bloc’s weekly meeting: “Seeing as Prime Minister Najib Miqati and his brothers have amassed billions of dollars, then he can provide the $35 million Lebanon is obligated to pay to fund the tribunal.”

International efforts to get Palestinians and Israelis back to talks in the next four weeks will be a test of the "sincerity" of the foes, according to Middle East envoy Tony Blair.

And the ambitious target set by the United States, Russia, the European Union and the United Nations to restart direct negotiations could become a pressing new deadline, diplomats say.