Global Leaders Condemn Trump's 'Scorn for International Law' As Haley Threatens More Possible Air Strikes
As foreign policy experts denounced the missile strikes ordered by President Donald Trump Friday night, U.S. ambassador to the U.N. Nikki Haley further troubled critics on Saturday when she warned that the U.S. is prepared to attack the war-torn country again.
“I spoke to the US president this morning and he said that if the Syrian regime uses this poisonous gas again, the United States is locked and loaded,” Haley intoned at an emergency meeting of the U.N. Security Council, referring to a suspected chemical attack that Trump has accused Syrian President Bashar al-Assad of carrying out last weekend.
Her statement came before the Security Council voted against a Russian resolution that would have condemned the missile strikes, with eight nations rejecting the resolution, four abstaining, and three countries—Bolivia, China, and Russia—voting in favor of it.
Haley’s declaration was denounced by some of her counterparts at the UN, with Bolivian ambassador Sacha Sergio Llorenty Soliz expressing hope that international law would “prevail.”
“Her country is ready, is ‘locked and loaded,'” said Soliz. “Of course, we clearly heard her words with a great deal of concern and a great deal of sadness. We know that the United States has aircraft carriers, that they have satellites, that they have ‘intelligent missiles, smart bombs,’ they have a huge arsenal of nuclear weapons.”
Holding up the U.N. charter, which allows the use of military force for members only when necessary for self-defense or with the approval of the Security Council, Soliz concluded, “And we also know that they have nothing but scorn for international law, but we have this.”
“We know that the United States has aircraft carriers, that they have satellites, that they have ‘intelligent missiles, smart bombs,’ they have a huge arsenal of nuclear weapons. And we also know that they have nothing but scorn for international law.” —Bolivian ambassador Sacha Sergio Llorenty Soliz
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