National Security Advisor Susan Rice said Monday that United Nations negotiations on Syria have been “shameful,” singling out Russia and China as obstacles to diplomatic progress in the Syrian conflict.
Rice, who served as the U.S. ambassador to the U.N. from 2009 until this past June, assured in a speech at the New America Foundation that President Barack Obama would have preferred to secure the U.N. Security Council’s support in responding to chemical weapons in Syria with limited military action.
“But let’s be realistic. It is just not going to happen,” she said. “Believe me. I know. I was there for all of those debates and negotiations on Syria. I lived it. It was shameful.”
Rice added that three resolutions proposed by the Security Council condemning violence by the Syrian regime, despite including “the most watered-down language imaginable” that rendered them “almost meaningless,” were vetoed by Russia and China.