US representative to UN Rice: History to judge UN's inaction on Syria

Former US permanent representative to the United Nations (UN) Susan Rice stated Tuesday that Security Council’s inaction on Syria was a moral and strategic disgrace that history would judge harshly. Appointed as National Security Advisor by US President Barack Obama, Rice, in her last press conference as UN representative, stated that she remained acutely aware that the work and responsibility of the UN was never finished during her four and a half years time at UN. "Conflict, abuse, atrocities, poverty, and suffering persist in too many places," Rice said. "I particularly regret that the Security Council has failed to act decisively while more than 90,000 Syrians have been killed and millions more displaced. The Council’s inaction on Syria is a moral and strategic disgrace that history will judge harshly."   She said the Security Council had levied the stiffest sanctions ever against Iran and North Korea, imposing real costs for nuclear proliferation and the violation of their international obligations, adding their activities on climate change, human rights and advancing women’s equality,protection and empowerment around the world. Stressing also their support to Israel, Rice said, "We’ve forcefully opposed unbalanced and biased actions against Israel across the UN system, standing shoulder to shoulder with Israel on principle, regardless of whether such actions were popular in these halls." Rice underlined that the Syrian issue was a repeated failure of the Security Council to unify on the crucial issue of Syria and said, "It's a stain on UN's body and something that I will forever regret, even though I don’t believe that outcome is a product of the action of the United States or its closest partners." She added Security Council has made many works and even the moderate draft resolutions of UN faced veto by Russia and China.