Bolivia delivered an epic blow to the US at the emergency UN Security Council meeting Friday, reminding everyone of the disastrous weapons of mass destruction lie peddled by the US as a pretext to invade Iraq.
Speaking at the emergency meeting to discuss the United States’ missile strikes against Syria on Thursday, Bolivian Ambassador to the United Nations, Sacha Llorenti, criticized the Trump’s decision to take unilateral action against Syria, which he described as being “an extremely serious violation of international law.”
Llorenti reminded the council of what transpired on Wednesday February 5, 2003, when then-US secretary of state Colin Powell “came to this room to present to us, according to his own words, convincing proof that there were weapons of mass destruction in Iraq.”
Llorenti held up a photograph of Powell taken on that day, when he held up a model vial of anthrax to demonstrate the dangers posed by Saddam Hussein and his alleged stockpile of weapons of mass destruction.
“I believe that we must absolutely remember these pictures and that we were told that there were weapons of mass destruction in Iraq and this was the motivation for an invasion,” he said. “After this invasion, there was 1 million deaths, and it launched a series of atrocities in that region.”
“Could we talk about ISIS if that invasion had not taken place? Could we be talking about the series of horrendous attacks in various parts in the world had that invasion, this illegal invasion not taken place?”
READ MORE: Syria & Iraq: Anatomy of a 21st century conflict
Llorenti’s statements were celebrated online.
Bolivia’s bold statement served a blow to U.S. Ambassador to the UN, Nikki Haley, who rejected Llorenti’s request for a closed Security Council session to discuss the airstrikes, stating, “Any country that chooses to defend the atrocities of the Syrian regime will have to do so in full public view, for all the world to hear.”