‘As if she was Mother Teresa herself’: Russia’s Churkin snubs US Power’s speech at UNSC
Russia’s UN envoy Vitaly Churkin hit back at his US counterpart, Samantha Power, at a UN Security Council meeting, saying that she was not Mother Teresa and represents a country with a long record of violations.
Power and Churkin both spoke at a UN Security Council meeting on Aleppo in New York City on Monday. Power began by accusing Russia, the Assad government of Syria, and Iran of “conquest and carnage in Aleppo.”
“You bear responsibility for these atrocities by rejecting UN ICRC evacuation efforts, you are signaling to those militia who are massacring innocents to keep doing what they are doing, denying or obfuscating the facts as you will do today,” said Power emotionally.
According to the Power, Washington knows “what was happening” and everyone knows that Russia is involved.
“To the Assad regime, Russia and Iran, your forces and proxies are carrying out these crimes, your barrel bombs and mortars and airstrikes have allowed the militia to encircle tens of thousands of civilians,” she said.
When Power ended her speech, Churkin took the stage saying: “The speech by the US representative is particularly strange to me; she gave her speech as if she was Mother Teresa herself. Please, remember which country you represent. Please, remember the track record of your country.”
Churkin also mentioned the role of US and their allies “in the creation of ISIS as a result of US-UK intervention in Iraq and US policy in this country.”
“I do not wish to remind you about the role that these three countries played in the unfolding of the Syrian crisis, which has resulted in dire consequences and has given space to terrorist organizations in Iraq and Syria,” he added.
Russia repeatedly said that hostilities in the Syrian city of Aleppo would have stopped long ago if the US had not just stood idly by, or called all militant groups “moderate opposition.”
“We are tired of hearing the lamentations of our American colleagues from the current administration that the hostilities [in Aleppo] should stop and that Russians are willing to do so only after having an agreement on corridors [for opposition fighters to leave],” Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said on Tuesday.
Moscow also repeatedly accused the UK, US, and France of inaction and not delivering aid to Aleppo despite their claims.
“While Western countries and representatives of various international organizations were vocal about the need to make humanitarian deliveries to eastern Aleppo possible when it was fully under rebel control, they seem to have lost interest in helping the residents now that they’ve been liberated by government forces,” Russian Defense Ministry spokesman General Igor Konashenkov said earlier in December.
