New York Post

DISS IS US

President, former FBI head savage each other

- By MARK MOORE and TAMAR LAPIN

UN Ambassador Nikki Haley said Sunday the United States must continue to act “smart” when countries use chemical weapons or a similar attack could happen on American soil.

“This very easily could happen in the United States if we’re not smart and if we’re not conscious of what’s happening,” Haley told “Fox News Sunday.” “We have to be very conscious of the fact that we cannot allow even the smallest use of chemical weapons.”

Haley also said the Trump administra­tion would strike back at Russia, which has supported Syria in its seven-year civil war, by imposing sanctions.

“You will see that Russian sanctions will be coming down,” she said on CBS’s “Face the Nation.” “[Treasury] Secretary [Steven] Mnuchin will be announcing those on Monday . . . and they will go directly to any sort of companies that were dealing with equipment related to Assad and chemicalwe­apons use.”

Haley said the United States intends to make sure supporters of Syrian strongman Bashar alAssad feel the consequenc­es of the chemical-weapons attack.

“We wanted their friends Iran and Russia to know that we meant business and that they were going to be feeling the pain from this as well,” she said.

The United States, along with allies France and Britain, struck Syria on Saturday with a barrage of missiles in retaliatio­n for Assad’s chemical-weapons attack on his people in Douma, a suburb of the capital of Damascus, which killed dozens and injured hundreds more.

Meeting with Russian lawmakers on Sunday, Assad, who reports said was in a “good mood,” called the airstrikes an act “of American aggression.”

“Yesterday we saw American aggression,” Russian lawmaker Dmitry Sablin quoted Assad as saying, according to Russia’s TASS news agency. “And we were able to repel it with Soviet missiles from the ’70s.”

The Kremlin in a statement said President Vladimir Putin warned that any further attacks by the United States and its Western allies could create chaos.

“Vladimir Putin, in particular, stressed that if such actions committed in violation of the UN Charter continue, then it will inevitably lead to chaos in internatio­nal relations,” the statement said, noting Putin had spoken to his Iranian counterpar­t, Hassan Rouhani, by phone.

Haley, who warned Saturday that the US is “locked and loaded” in case of another chemical attack, urged Russia to use its influence on Assad to get him to the negotiatin­g table.

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 ??  ?? NEVER AGAIN: UN Ambassador Nikki Haley says the United States will accept no use of chemical weapons, no matter how small, after Washington retaliated against Syria for its attack.
NEVER AGAIN: UN Ambassador Nikki Haley says the United States will accept no use of chemical weapons, no matter how small, after Washington retaliated against Syria for its attack.

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