U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley and other American diplomats condemned a terrorist attack that killed 11 people in St. Petersburg, Russia, on Monday.
“It’s heartbreaking, no matter where this happens, it’s heartbreaking,” Haley said during her first press conference as president of the UN Security Council, a post that rotates annually. “So our thoughts and prayers go out obviously to those that were lost and their loved ones at this time.”
American and Russian officials have long discussed the possibility of building a positive rapport around common opposition to terrorism. The bombing takes place in the context of very tense relations between Russia the United States. Haley’s predecessor spent much of last year blasting Russian President Vladimir Putin and other officials for attacking civilians and humanitarian in Syria. Putin’s team replied by claiming they were helping Syrian President Bashar Assad fight terrorists, but American defense officials countered that Russian forces were actually targeting moderate U.S.-backed rebels.
“When you see innocent lives lost in such a senseless manner, it goes back to just enforce why the Security Council is so important, why what we do at the United Nations is so important, and why our priority always has to be focused on those issues,” Haley said.
Eleven people were killed and about 50 wounded in a bombing at a metro station in St. Petersburg. ISIS terrorists celebrated the attack on social media, without taking responsibility for the terror. U.S. condolences for such attacks are customary among diplomats, but they took on new significance during the Syrian conflict following the death of two Russian medics.
“We demand that the international community, as well as the International Federation of Red Cross, Red Crescent Societies, Doctors without Borders (MSF), and other international organizations strongly condemn this deliberate killing of Russian military medics that were fulfilling their duty of care by treating Aleppo residents,” the Russian Ministry of Defense said in December.
That followed heavy criticism from Secretary of State John Kerry and other Americans who suggested that Russia had committed war crimes in Syria, particularly in light of the bombing of a UN humanitarian convoy outside Aleppo and other hospitals in the region. “These are acts that beg for an appropriate investigation of war crimes and those that commit these would and should be held accountable for these actions,” Kerry said. “They’re beyond the accidental now, way beyond, years beyond the accidental. This is a targeted strategy to terrorize civilians and to kill anybody and everybody who is in the way of their military objectives.”
Then-State Department spokesman John Kirby also faulted Russia and Assad for killing humanitarian workers in rebel-held areas, including during a heated exchange with a Russian reporter that prompted the Russian Foreign Ministry to threaten retaliation against American media. Kirby’s successor echoed Haley’s condemnation of the metro bombing.
“The United States condemns today’s reprehensible attack on passengers of the St. Petersburg metro system,” acting State Department spokesman Mark Toner said. “We extend our deepest condolences to the loved ones of those who were killed, and our thoughts and prayers are with those injured in the attack and with the Russian people.”
