US Ambassador Nikki Haley on Wednesday lashed out at Russia for failing to rein in its ally Syria after a suspected chemical attack left scores dead including children.
“How many more children have to die before Russia cares?” Haley told a meeting of the UN Security Council called to discuss the attack on a rebel-held town in Idlib province.
“If Russia has the influence in Syria that it claims to have, we need to see them use it,” she said. “We need to see them put an end to these horrific acts.”
Haley stood up in the council chamber and showed two photographs of victims of the attack Tuesday in the town of Khan Sheikhun.
“Look at those pictures,” she urged.
The emergency council meeting was called by France and Britain following the attack that killed at least 72 people, including 20 children, the worst in Syria since a 2013 sarin gas attack.
Britain, France and the United States have presented a draft resolution demanding a full investigation of the attack, but Russia said the text was “categorically unacceptable.”
The draft resolution calls for a full investigation by the Organisation of the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) of the attack in the early hours of Tuesday in Khan Sheikhun.
Russia’s Deputy Ambassador Vladimir Safronkov told the council that the proposed resolution was hastily prepared and unnecessary, but voiced support for an inquiry.
“The main task now is to have an objective inquiry into what happened,” he said.
Negotiations were continuing on the draft after Russia’s foreign ministry said in Moscow that “the text as presented is categorically unacceptable.”
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