President Trump might order unilateral military action against Syrian President Bashar Assad if Russia and China persist in vetoing United Nations resolutions in response to his use of chemical weapons, America’s top UN diplomat warned the Security Council.
“When the United Nations consistently fails in its duty to act collectively, there are times in the life of states that we are compelled to take our own action,” U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley said Wednesday.
Russian President Vladimir Putin’s team uses the prospect of unilateral U.S. military action to justify their call for “a post-West world order.” Putin also warned then-President Barack Obama that U.S. retaliation against Assad’s use of chemical weapons could cause the UN “to suffer the fate of the League of Nations, which collapsed because it lacked real leverage.” But Russia proceeded to intervene in the civil war on behalf of Assad without UN approval, saying his invitation gave them legal authority to do so, and they have blocked vetoed U.S.-led countermeasures.
“[T]his entire Security Council decided on what the Joint Investigative Mechanism would be and decided what it would do, and it was actually voted on unanimously,” Haley said. “And the joint mechanism came back and said that the Syrian government committed chemical weapons acts against their own people three different times. But somehow now we don’t like what the Joint Investigative Mechanism does.”
Russia agreed to put military action on the table as part of the deal to remove Assad’s chemical weapons from Syria, but Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov hinted that they wouldn’t accept western investigations of gas attacks even then. “Of course it does not mean that each violation reported to the Security Council will be taken on trust,” Lavrov said following negotiations with then-Secretary of State John Kerry. “Each will be investigated. We will try to ensure authenticity.”
Russian support for Assad has rendered the UN nearly irrelevant, Haley warned. “This Security Council thinks of itself as a defender of peace, security, and human rights,” she said. “We will not deserve that description if we do not rise to action today.”
The latest chemical weapons attack has the Trump team, which was resigned to Assad’s endurance as leader of Syria, rethinking their policy toward the regime. “When you kill innocent children, innocent babies with a chemical gas that was so lethal – that crossed many, many lines beyond the red line,” Trump told reporters Wednesday.
