The U.S. ambassador to the United Nations is warning Syria that the United States is prepared to take military action again for chemical attacks that are killing and wounding Syrian civilians.
Nikki Haley said that since the Security Council adopted a resolution 15 days ago demanding a cease-fire throughout Syria without delay there have been three allegations of chlorine gas attacks during a stepped up military campaign against rebels.
“This is no cease-fire,” she told the council on Monday. “The cease-fire has failed.”
She recalled the U.S. warning after last year’s sarin gas attack on Khan Sheikhoun, which an expert panel blamed on President Bashar Assad’s government, that it would take action if the council didn’t.
“The Security Council failed to act and the United States successfully struck the air base from which Assad had launched this chemical attack,” Haley said. “We repeat that warning today ... the United States is prepared to act if we must.”
She accused Syria, Russia and Iran of using a loophole in the cease-fire resolution allowing military actions against al-Qaida and Islamic State militants to bomb and shell schools, hospitals and “continue starving and pummeling hundreds of thousands of innocent Syrian civilians.”
Haley said the U.S. is circulating a new resolution eliminating that loophole and demanding an immediate cease-fire in Damascus and the suburbs of eastern Ghouta to deliver humanitarian aid and evacuate the wounded and critically ill.
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