UN Security Council holds emergency meeting to discuss Syria airstrikes
ERBIL, Kurdistan Region – The United Nations Security Council held an emergency meeting on Saturday at the request of Russian Ambassador to the UN, Vasily Nebenzya, to discuss airstrikes carried out on Syria by the US, UK and France in response to recent allegations of chemical attacks by the Syrian regime in rebel-controlled areas.
“Russia condemns in the strongest possible terms, the attack against Syria, where Russian military personnel are assisting the legitimate government in its counter-terrorism efforts,” Nebenzya said at the emergency meeting.
US President Donald Trump, backed by the UK and France, ordered precision and unilateral strikes against the Syrian Air Force early on Saturday morning.
The event was described as a combined American, British and French "response to atrocities" via military, economic, and diplomatic instruments.
The three Western members of the UN Security Council allege the regime was responsible for a chemical attack in Douma on April 7 that killed around 50 people. Independent investigations by each reach the same conclusion with Russia denying the presence of chemical agents in the town.
Russia and Iran have been Baathist President Bashar al-Assad's primary backers, who the Western powers blame for allowing the alleged chemical attacks in Douma and previously elsewhere.
Nebenzya added, “Through its actions, the United States makes an already catastrophic humanitarian situation in Syria even worse and brings suffering to civilians,” accusing the US of “pandering terrorists” and called on the US and its allies to immediately “end its aggression against Syria” and to “refrain from them in the future.”
US Ambassador to the UN, Nikki Haley blasted Russia for backing Syria and allowing Syrian President Bashar al-Assad to carry out chemical attacks against innocent civilians.
"We cannot stand by and let Russia trash every international norm that we stand for, and allow the use of chemical weapons to go unanswered," Haley told the Security Council.
"The United States is locked and loaded," she added. "When our President draws a red line, our President enforces a red line."
The Kremlin had previously stated the United States and its allies' strikes against the Syrian Arab Republic were not sanctioned by the UN Security Council, and thus in violation of the UN Charter, norms and principles of international law.
The UN Secretary General urged political dialogue instead, and an end to military intervention.
"Syria today represents the most serious threat to international peace and security," UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres told the Security Council. "There is no military solution to the crisis. The solution must be political."
The Syrian civil war that began in 2011, coupled the ISIS conflict, has claimed the lives of more than 400,000 people and caused the worst refugee crisis since World War II.