United Nations Security Council diplomats agreed to a resolution calling for a 30-day ceasefire in one of the most violent civilian areas of Syria after days of sparring with Russian officials.
“We are deeply skeptical that the [Syrian] regime will comply,” Nikki Haley, the U.S. ambassador to the U.N., said Saturday. “But we supported this resolution because we must demand nothing less. We owe this to the innocent people of Syria begging for help.”
Syrian President Bashar Assad and pro-regime forces have subjected eastern Ghouta, a district on the outskirts of Damascus, to an intense barrage of airstrikes in recent days despite the dense civilian population. Haley noted that “19 health facilities” have been bombed in the last six days. “Getting to a vote became a moral responsibility for everyone, but not for Russia, not for Syria, not for Iran. I have to ask, why?” she said.
Russia, which supports Assad in the ongoing civil war, maintained that the clashes are provoked by anti-regime insurgents and blocked the passage of a ceasefire resolution over concerns that it would protect terrorists.
“If our arguments are ignored once again, we have no other choice but to be reinforced in the view that the aim of the authors of this initiative is to once again shift the attention to Damascus, cover up terrorist groups,” Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said Thursday.
Haley hinted that Russia delayed the vote in order to buy time for additional attacks by the Assad regime.
“As they dragged out the negotiation, the bombs from Assad’s fighter jets continued to fall. In the three days it took us to adopt this resolution, how many mothers lost their kids to the bombing and the shelling?” she said. “How many more images did we need to see of fathers holding their dead children? All for nothing, because here we are voting for a ceasefire that could have saved lives days ago. And after all of this time, hardly anything has changed in the resolution except a few words and some commas.”
Russia agreed to a revised ceasefire resolution after Swedish diplomats intervened and Lavrov spoke directly with Foreign Minister Margot Wallstrom. “The ceasefire would exempt attacks against the Islamic State terrorist group (outlawed in Russia) and the groups affiliated with it,” TASS, a Russian government run media outlet, emphasized Saturday.
