The Trump administration accused Russia and China of “outrageous and indefensible” action Tuesday after they vetoed a U.N. Security Council resolution that would have imposed new sanctions on Syria for using chemical weapons against its own citizens.
In a sharply worded speech after the vote, U.S. Ambassador Nikki Haley said the message the council was sending to the world was that “if you are allies with Russia and China, they will cover the backs of their friends who use chemical weapons to kill their own people.”
Her comments marked a rare administration criticism of Russia, which President Donald Trump has said could be a partner in counterterrorism operations in Syria, and of the Syrian government’s behavior in that country’s five-year civil war.
Russian envoy Vladimir Safronkov called Haley’s statement “outrageous” and said that “God shall judge” attempts by the West to discredit the legitimate Syrian government.
The United States sponsored the resolution, along with Britain and France. It followed the October conclusion of a joint investigation by the United Nations and the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons that the Syrian government had dropped munitions containing chlorine on at least three occasions in 2014 and 2015.
In a report issued in October, investigators concluded that the Syrian government had dropped chlorine-filled munitions on the three dates in question. The investigation also concluded that the Islamic State had used mustard gas on at least one occasion.
The Tuesday resolution called for travel and economic sanctions against several Syrian air force and intelligence officers linked to the attacks by investigators, along with asset freezes of several Syrian companies and government-linked organizations. It also established a mechanism to monitor compliance.
A single veto from one of the 15-nation council’s five permanent members — Russia, China, United States, Britain and France — can kill a resolution. Bolivia, one of 10 nonpermanent, rotating members, also voted against Tuesday’s measure.
In denouncing the resolution, Safronkov suggested that evidence was uncorroborated and came from “suspicious eyewitness accounts . . . armed opponents, sympathetic (nongovernmental organizations), media and also the so-called Friends of Syria.”
The United States and Russia have been on opposing sides of Syria’s civil war since its outset. While the United States and European and regional allies have supported armed fighters and political opponents against Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, Russia has been Assad’s primary foreign backer.
