While addressing the United Nations Security Council called out Russia over its defense of Syria.
Excerpts from what she said, video at the bottom:
If Russia had lived up to its commitment, there would be no chemical weapons in Syria, and we would not be here today. That is the Russian record of unilateralism. It is a record that has led to the trashing of all international standards against the use of chemical weapons.
This meeting should not be about the so-called unilateral threats, it should be about the multiple actions Russia has taken to bring us to this point.
Our president has not yet made a decision about possible actions in Syria, but should the United States and our allies decide to act in Syria, it will be in defense of a principle on which we all agree. It will be in defense of a bedrock international norm that benefits all nations.
Let’s be clear – Assad’s most recent use of poison gas against the people of Douma was not his first, second, third, or even 49th use of chemical weapons. The United States estimates that Assad has used chemical weapons in the Syrian war at least 50 times. Public estimates are as high as 200.
In the weeks after Assad’s sarin gas attack last April that killed nearly a hundred people including many children, the regime used chlorine gas at least once, and possibly as many as three times, in the same area. Last November, just as the Joint Investigative Mechanism mandate expired, the regime attacked its people with sarin again in the Damascus suburbs. In January, Assad used at least four chlorine-filled rockets in Douma, and then he struck again last weekend.
And thanks to Russia, there was no U.N. body to determine blame. But we know who did this. Our allies know who did this. Russia can complain all it wants about fake news, but no one is buying its lies and its cover-ups.