The U.S. ambassador to the United Nations on Monday said that closing the U.S. embassy in Syria “does not mean that we have abandoned the Syrian people.”
The United States closed its embassy in Syria on Monday, evacuating the remaining personnel including the ambassador before notifying the Syrian authorities of the move.
“We had to close our embassy purely for security reasons, because the Syrian authorities refused our repeated requests to take the necessary measures to secure our people and our facilities,” Ambassador Susan Rice said on MSNBC. She emphasized the move “does not mean that we have abandoned the Syrian people” and that the U.S. ambassador to Syria would retain his role as the representative to Syria.
“We would have preferred to stay [in Syria],” she said. “But because the Syrian government failed repeatedly to provide the necessary security, they will have to [work] from here.”
Rice also continued to blast Russia and China on Monday over their veto of a United Nations resolution calling on Syrian’s leader Bashar al-Assad to step down.
She warned in several media appearances Monday that the failed U.N. resolution could encourage the Syrian dictatorship toward more violence. As an example, Rice pointed to reports that Syrian troops killed more than 200 people over the weekend in the city of Homs.
She characterized the resolution as potentially “the last opportunity for a peaceful dialogue” that increases “the likelihood that the violence will escalate.”
Rice predicted that China and Russia would “come to regret [their veto] when there is a democratic Syria that won’t forget this action.”
Rice tweeted shortly after the failed vote on Saturday that she was “disgusted” by Russia’s and China’s choice. She said Monday that the move, which she called “reprehensible,” was “indeed disgusting and shameful.”
“It wasn’t so much that I was angry,” Rice said of the tweet. “I was expressing what I think is the shared frustration of the Syrian people, the American people and the publics of countries all over the world represented on that council that Russia and China by their veto made it impossible to support an Arab League plan for a peaceful, democratic transition.”
