UNITED STATES MISSION TO THE UNITED NATIONS
Office of Press and Public Diplomacy
April 27, 2017
Ambassador Nikki Haley, U.S. Permanent Representative to the United Nations, chaired a UN Security Council briefing this morning on the humanitarian situation in Syria. She condemned the Syrian government’s latest atrocities, including deadly sieges against their own people. Ambassador Haley also called out Russia for allowing the Assad regime to act with impunity.
“It’s been just three weeks since the world was horrified by the pictures of poisoned children in Syria, the result of deadly nerve agents dropped from the sky. Those images of suffering and dying children will never be forgotten. But there is a quieter, slower kind of death occurring in Syria today. It is even more deliberate, more labor-intensive, and more widespread than dropping chemical weapons from thousands of feet in the air. The Syrian regime is engaged in a purposeful strategy of siege and surrender. Civilians stranded inside are literally kept as prisoners until they die or kneel before the government. They are denied food. They are also denied life-saving medical supplies.”
“All eyes and all pressure now need to go to Russia because they are the ones that could stop this if they wanted to…the images don’t lie. The humanitarian workers don’t lie. The fact that they can’t get the assistance they need – that’s not lying. What is, is to continue to give Russia a pass for allowing this terrible situation to occur. I will continue to press the Security Council to act, to do something, regardless of if the Russians continue to veto it, because it is our voice that needs to be heard. Because I can tell you the Syrian people don’t care about diplomacy. The Syrian people don’t care about any sort of task forces. Syrian people don’t care about any of the things we said today. They’re just trying to live their very last day.”
