UNITED NATIONS—Russia and the Trump administration clashed in a vote at the United Nations Security Council for the first time on Tuesday, as the Kremlin vetoed a measure backed by the United States and its Western allies to punish Syria for using chemical weapons.
While the Russians had long signaled their intent to block the resolution, which was supported by dozens of countries, the clash offered insights into the big divisions that remain between the Kremlin and President Donald J. Trump, who has vowed to improve ties.
Russia and China, two of the five permanent members of the council, blocked the measure. It was the Kremlin’s seventh Security Council veto in defense of President Bashar al-Assad of Syria over the war that has been convulsing his country for nearly six years.
The US ambassador, Nikki R. Haley, who has called chemical weapons attacks in Syria “barbaric”, accused Russia and China of putting “their friends in the Assad regime ahead of our global security” in her blunt rebuke of the vetoes.
“It is a sad day on the Security Council,” Haley said after the vote. “When members start making excuses for other member-states killing their own people, the world is definitely a more dangerous place.”
Diplomats said Haley had insisted on putting the measure up for a vote this week, signaling a desire to take a tough stand on Russia. In recent weeks, Haley has condemned what she called Russia’s “aggressive actions” in eastern Ukraine, vowed to maintain sanctions over Russia’s annexation of Crimea and, in her Senate confirmation hearing, went as far as saying that Russia was guilty of war crimes in Syria.
Her comments on Russia have sometimes contradicted the more conciliatory language of Trump, who has made clear his desire to increase cooperation with Russia. Haley, by contrast, has often echoed the talking points of the previous administration, as well as the concerns of Republicans in Congress who distrust the Kremlin. The resolution, proposed by Britain and France months ago and endorsed by the US last week, would have imposed sanctions on a handful of Syrian military officials and entities for having dropped chlorine-filled barrel bombs on opposition-held areas on at least three occasions in 2014 and 2015, according to a UN panel.
Russia’s envoy, Vladimir Safronkov, defended the veto, calling the resolution “politically biased” and asserting that Russia’s concerns about the draft language had not been addressed. “This is railroading the draft by the Western troika,” he said.
China’s ambassador, Liu Jieyi, recalling the now-discredited US warnings of Iraq’s “so-called WMDs [weapons of mass destruction]” in 2003, criticized the resolution as an example of “hypocrisy” by the Western powers. “It was forced through to a vote while council members still have differences,” he said. “This is in no way helpful to finding a solution.”
Chlorine is banned as a weapon under an international treaty that Assad’s government signed in 2013. The French ambassador, François Delattre, said he welcomed the solidarity from Haley on the resolution. “The Trump administration has a very clear position that is also our French position, the British position and the position of the majority of members of the Security Council,” he said. “We’re exactly on the same page.”
Britain’s ambassador, Matthew Rycroft, said: “This isn’t even about Syria. It’s about taking a stand when children are poisoned.”
The arguments and vote over the resolution were important because they shed light on how Trump would deal with the Kremlin over the Syria war. Russia is Assad’s most important foreign ally.
Trump has repeatedly expressed admiration for President Vladimir Putin of Russia and said he wanted to strike a deal with him to stop the Syrian war and focus on fighting terrorism. But disagreements within Trump’s administration appear to have complicated that goal.