Pompeo slams Russia, China over veto of humanitarian aid to Syria

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo blasted Russia and China after the countries vetoed a resolution allowing humanitarian aid for Syria. 

“To Russia and China, who have chosen to make a political statement by opposing this resolution, you have blood on your hands,” he said in a Saturday statement.

Pompeo said that the resolution would have helped the assistance reach at least four million Syrians. 

He added that the countries’ decision placed “the lives of millions of innocent civilians in the balance at the height of winter.”

“Russia’s and China’s vetoes of this resolution demonstrate that these governments simply do not care that the horrible Syrian regime continues to obstruct and deny humanitarian access to its own people,” the top U.S. diplomat said.

On Friday, the United Nations’s Security Council did not adopt the aid resolution due to the vetoes. 

According to CNN, the resolution would have allowed aid to Syria entering the country across points on its borders with Turkey and Iraq for 12 months. Russia reportedly supported a separate resolution that would have allowed aid to enter from Turkey for six months. 

Vassily Nebenzia, who represents Russia at the UN, reasoned against the aid resolution distributed through Turkey and Iraq because he said that a lot of the aid had been co-opted by terrorist groups, according to the news network.