Peter Wittig, Germany's ambassador to the UN, discusses the diplomatic actions taken by his own country and its allies in retaliation over the Houla massacre with Al Jazeera:

We reacted swiftly along with our partners to send a message.

There is still diplomatic staff on the ground, this was a visible sign that such blatant violation of humanitarian principles.

My government is very strongly of the view that we must exhaust all possibilities … which is why we want to safeguard the Annan plan.