U.S. Ambassador Nikki Haley forcefully condemned Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and the suspected chemical attack in Syria over the weekend that killed more than 40 people while speaking to the U.N. Security Council on Monday.
More than 40 people were killed in an alleged chemical attack in Douma on Saturday, believed to have been carried out by Assad, who has denied the allegations.
“Chemical weapons have once again been used on Syrian men, women and children,” Haley said, pointing out that it was only one year ago that she had held up pictures of dead Syrian children following a chemical attack that killed nearly 100 people.
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“Who does this? Only a monster does this,” Haley said. “Only a monster targets civilians and then ensures that there are no ambulances to transfer the wounded, no hospitals to save their lives, no doctors or medicine to ease their pain. I could hold up pictures of all of this killing and suffering for the council to see. But what would be the point? The monster who is responsible for these attacks has no conscience.”
Haley targeted Iran and Russia for enabling the Syrian regime.
“The Russian regime, whose hands are also covered in the blood of Syrian children, cannot be shamed by pictures of its victims,” she said. “We’ve tried that before.”
“Russia and Iran have military advisers at the Assad regime’s airfields and operations centers. Russian officials are on the ground helping direct the regime’s ‘starve and surrender’ campaigns, and Iranian allied forces do much of the dirty work. When the Syrian military pummels civilians, they rely on the military hardware given by Russia. Russia could stop this senseless slaughter, if it wanted. But it stands with the Assad regime and supports it without hesitation. What’s the point of trying to shame such people? After all, no civilized government would have anything to do with Assad’s murderous regime,” Haley said.
President Donald Trump recently called the attack “sick” and said that there is a “a big price to pay” for those responsible for the attack.
“We are beyond showing pictures of dead babies. We are beyond appeals to conscience. We have reached the moment when the world must see justice done. History will record this as the moment when the Security Council either discharged its duty or demonstrated its utter and complete failure to protect the people of Syria. Either way, the United States will respond,” Haley said.
Watch Haley make her remarks here:
