UN, December 14. /TASS/. Russia’s UN envoy, Vitaly Churkin, retaliated to US diplomat’s claims of alleged crimes against civilians in Aleppo by saying that she was in no position to act "as if she was Mother Teresa" because she represented a country with a poor human rights record.
Speaking at a UN Security Council session on Tuesday night, US Ambassador to the United Nations Samantha Power lashed at President Bashar Asad’s government and its supporters, claiming that pro-government forces executed civilians on the streets of Aleppo.
"Your forces and your proxies are carrying out these crimes. Your barrel bombs and mortars and air strikes have allowed the militia in Aleppo to encircle tens of thousands of civilians in your ever-tightening noose," she said.
The US diplomat compared the situation in Aleppo to notorious crimes against civilians, including the 1988 Halabja chemical attack against the Kurdish people in Iraq (estimated to kill between 3,200 and 5,000 people), the 1994 Rwandan genocide (estimated to kill ·up to 1,000,000 people) and the 1993 Srebrenica massacre (left over 8,000 people dead).
The Russian envoy, who delivered the news about the cessation of hostilities in Aleppo to the council, hit back, accusing Power of building her statement "as if she was Mother Teresa".
"Please remember what country you represent. Remember your own country’s track record before you start opining from the position of moral or any other kind of supremacy. The history and the God will judge who is guilty of what," he said.
Churkin also hinted at the role the "Western trio" had played in the escalation of the Syrian crisis and at the 2003 US invasion of Iraq, which triggered the creation of the outlawed Islamic State terrorist group, now active in Syria and a number of other states in the region.