|
|
Nikki Haley on War & Peace |
HALEY: Obviously this was cumulative. Assad had been using chemical weapons multiple times. But more so, this was about the Security Council resolutions--Russia had vetoed all of them. So we felt like we had gone through every diplomatic measure of talking that we could, and it was time for action. We hope Assad got the message [that] the international community will not allow chemical weapons to come back into our everyday life, and the fact that he was making this more normal and that Russia was covering it up, all of that has to stop.
Q: Are there any consequences for Assad's patrons, Russia and Iran, who continue to protect him?
HALEY: Absolutely. So, you will see that Russian sanctions will be coming down. They will go directly to any sort of companies that were dealing with equipment related to Assad and chemical weapons used.
HALEY: Because there should never be a time we don't want to lift up countries. There should never be a time we don't want to make them more independent. If we're there all the time, all you're doing is creating dependence. So what we're looking at is you're going to see us wind down. But guess what? We're going to work harder on those areas that truly don't have peace, those areas that are trying to get stability and can't get there.
If we are going into an area like South Sudan, there is a serious problem when we can't get food and medical equipment to those people who need it. The reason we can't get it to them is not just because of extremists. It's because of their own government. When you've got that issue, we actually have to punish the government for not allowing us to bring in aid to those.