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Iran on Monday welcomed the Russian and Chinese veto on a UN security council resolution condemning its ally Syria for its crackdown on dissent, the official IRNA news agency reported.

"By vetoing the proposed sanctions China and Russia have been just," foreign minister Ali Akbar Salehi said.

"The security council has become a tool for the West's bullying  of other nations, and this time Russia and China stood up against it," the Islamic republic's top diplomat said.

The other 13 countries in the 15-member council voted for the resolution, proposed by European and Arab nations to give strong backing to an Arab League plan calling for President Bashar al-Assad to hand over to his deputy.