U.S. ready to act on cease-fire in Syria if Russia equivocates

UNITED NATIONS — The United States is “prepared to act” if Russia doesn’t get on board with a new call for a cease-fire in Syria, U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Nikki Haley said Monday.

The U.S. has circulated a new resolution for the U.N. Security Council to consider as the 30-day nationwide humanitarian cease-fire called for Feb. 24 has not been implemented, Haley said.

It is a simplified text “with no counterterrorism loopholes for Iran, Russia or (Syrian President Bashar) Assad to hide behind,” Haley said.

It is not clear when a vote would take place.

If a 30-day nationwide humanitarian pause cannot be agreed upon, Haley said, the U.S. might be compelled to take its own action.

“The U.S. remains prepared to act if we must — it is not the path we prefer but it is a path we have demonstrated we will take and we are prepared to take it again,” Haley said.

The U.S. launched dozens of missiles against a Syrian airbase last year in response to a chemical attack U.N. investigators have since said was carried out by the Syrian government.

Security Council diplomats have accused Russia of flouting the February agreement by replacing it with a five-hour daily humanitarian cease-fire.

The cease-fire resolution included a clause exempting efforts to fight terrorist groups from the humanitarian pause, which Russia has been accused of exploiting.

Russia’s U.N. Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia said an immediate cease-fire “would have been utopian.”

He added that the counterterrorism operations are in line with the U.N.’s resolution and that the Syrian government has “every right to try and remove the threat to the safety of its citizens.”

U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said Monday that efforts to combat terrorist groups in Syria “do not supersede” obligations to stop the fighting, as he urged for the U.N. call for a ceasefire to be heeded.