U.S. President Donald Trump on Sunday defended his use of the phrase "mission accomplished" to describe a U.S.-led missile attack on Syria's chemical weapons program, even as his aides stressed continuing U.S. troop involvement and plans for new economic sanctions against Russia for enabling the government of Bashar Assad.
Stepping up the pressure on Syria's president, U.S. Ambassador Nikki Haley indicated the sanctions to be announced Monday would be aimed at sending a message to Russia, which she said has blocked six attempts by the U.N. Security Council to make it easier to investigate the use of chemical weapons by Syrian President Bashar Assad's forces.
"Everyone is going to feel it at this point," Haley said, warning of consequences for Assad's foreign allies.
"The international community will not allow chemical weapons to come back into our everyday life," she said. "The fact he was making this more normal and that Russia was covering this up, all that has got to stop."
Haley made clear the United States won't be pulling troops out of Syria right away, saying U.S. involvement there "is not done."
She said the three U.S. goals for accomplishing its mission are making sure chemical weapons are not used in a way that could harm U.S. national interests, defeating the Islamic State group and having a good vantage point to watch what Iran is doing.
"We're not going to leave until we know we've accomplished those things," she said.
Haley noted that the American-British-French military strike on Syria "put a heavy blow into their chemical weapons program, setting them back years" and reiterated that if Assad uses chemical weapons against his people again, "the United States is locked and loaded."
The U.S.-led operation won broad Western support. The NATO alliance gave its full backing and NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said the attack was about ensuring that chemical weapons cannot be used with impunity.
Meanwhile, a senior Russian lawmaker warned Sunday that any new sanctions against Moscow will be hard for Russia but do more damage to the United States and Europe.
Evgeny Serebrennikov, deputy head of the defense committee of Russia's upper house of parliament, said Moscow was ready for the new penalties.
"They are hard for us, but will do more damage to the USA and Europe," RIA quoted Serebrennikov as saying.
