Assad May Lose Russia, China; McCain Calls for Airstrikes, By Nicole Gaouette - Mar 6, 2012 2:10 AM MT, Bloomberg News

Russia and China are shifting on Syria because they haven’t been “particularly happy with the position they’ve adopted in the region,” said Robert Danin, a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations in Washington. Their UN vetoes scuttled a resolution authored by the Arab League calling for Assad to hand power to a deputy.

“They’re lined up against popular sentiment in the Arab world,” Danin said. “That’s just not a great place to be. They have a lot of reasons to reconsider their position.”

In a March 4 six-point statement about a political resolution on the “Syria issue,” the Chinese Foreign Ministry pointedly distanced itself from the Assad government, noting the regime’s violence against civilians. China called itself a “friend of the Arab people,” and urged an end to “all acts of violence, particularly violence against innocent civilians.”