The UN Security Council overwhelmingly rejected a Russian resolution calling for condemnation of \u201caggression\u201d by the United States, United Kingdom and France against Syria on Saturday, a vote reflecting support for the allied airstrikes on Syrian chemical sites.<\/p>\n
But the vote at the end of an emergency meeting called by Russia also demonstrated again the paralysis of the UN\u2019s most powerful body in dealing with Syria\u2019s seven-year conflict.<\/p>\n
Russia\u2019s demand for condemnation and an immediate halt to \u201caggression\u201d and \u201cany further use of force\u201d by the three Western allies got support from only two other countries on the 15-member Security Council \u2014 China and Bolivia.<\/p>\n
By contrast, eight countries voted against the Russian draft \u2014 the US, UK, France, Netherlands, Sweden, Kuwait, Poland and Ivory Coast. Four countries abstained \u2014 Ethiopia, Kazakhstan, Equatorial Guinea and Peru.<\/p>\n
At the meeting, the fifth in a week on chemical weapons in Syria, Russia and its supporters again clashed with the US and its allies over a suspected poison gas attack on April 7 in the Damascus suburb of Douma.<\/p>\n
The US, UK and France said they launched airstrikes against Syrian chemical sites after obtaining evidence that a chemical weapon was used by President Bashar Assad\u2019s government. Russia and its ally Syria called the attack fabricated and said no evidence of chemical weapons use exists in Douma.<\/p>\n
US Ambassador Nikki Haley told the council \u201cthere is clear information demonstrating Assad\u2019s culpability.\u201d<\/p>\n
And she said President Donald Trump told her Saturday morning that if the Syrian regime uses poisonous gas again \u201cthe United States is locked and loaded\u201d to strike again.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen our president draws a red line, our president enforces the red line,\u201d Haley stressed. \u201cThe United States of America will not allow the Assad regime to continue using chemical weapons.\u201d<\/p>\n
France\u2019s UN Ambassador Francois Delattre said the result of the vote sends \u201ca clear message\u201d that Security Council members recognized the need for the airstrikes, and \u201ctheir proportional and targeted nature.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd what\u2019s most important is no one contests that the use of chemical weapons cannot be tolerated and must be deterred,\u201d he said. \u201cThat is essential.\u201d<\/p>\n
Russia\u2019s UN Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia said the meeting confirmed that the US and its allies \u201ccontinue to put international politics and diplomacy in the realm of myth-making \u2014 myths invented in London, Paris and Washington.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWe put facts contrary to your myths,\u201d he said. \u201cIf we continue on this path, we will soon reach the diplomacy of the absurd.\u201d<\/p>\n
Russia and Syria also clashed with the three Western allies over the legality of the airstrikes and responsibility for the Security Council\u2019s paralysis.<\/p>\n
Britain\u2019s UN Ambassador Karen Pierce blamed Russia for repeatedly vetoing resolutions on the use of chemical weapons in Syria and said the UK took military action \u201cto save lives,\u201d on the legal basis of \u201chumanitarian intervention.\u201d<\/p>\n
Britain believes \u201cthat is wholly within the principles and practices of the United Nations,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The UN Security Council overwhelmingly rejected a Russian resolution calling for condemnation of \u201caggression\u201d by the United States, United Kingdom and France against Syria on Saturday, a vote reflecting support for the allied airstrikes on Syrian chemical sites. But the vote at the end of an emergency meeting called by Russia also demonstrated again the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":28114,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[87],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-28113","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28113","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=28113"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28113\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":28115,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28113\/revisions\/28115"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/28114"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=28113"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=28113"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=28113"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}