FOREIGN POLICY/SYRIA/TRUMP AS PRESIDENT/TRUMP PEOPLE/UN/NIKKI HALEY: “The U.S. ambassador to the United Nations has condemned Syrian strongman Bashar Assad for being ‘a war criminal’ who’s done ‘disgusting’ things to his own people.
Ambassador Nikki Haley’s made the comments at the U.N. headquarters in New York City on Monday during a press conference held to mark the beginning of the United States’ presidency of the U.N. Security Council.
‘We have no love for Assad. We’ve made that very clear,’ she said, according to Reuters. ‘We think that he has been a hindrance to peace for a long time. He’s a war criminal. What he’s done to his people is nothing more than disgusting.’
Her statements came just days after both she and Secretary of State Rex Tillerson stirred controversy when they said the U.S. was no longer trying to remove Assad from power and may work with him to help fight the Islamic State. The comments represented a sharp departure from the strategy of former President Barack Obama, whose administration for years worked to remove the Syrian dictator from power.
Haley told reporters on Thursday [3-30-17] that the plan has changed, and the United States’ ‘priority is no longer to sit there and focus on getting Assad out.’ “
-Nick Vesser, “UN Ambassador Nikki Haley Calls Assad A ‘War Criminal,’ But She May Still Work With Him,” The Huffington Post, April 4, 2017