U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley said Wednesday that she believes President Donald Trump's warning to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad two days earlier not to use chemical weapons saved many innocent lives.
Haley was testifying before the House Foreign Affairs Committee when Rep. Ed Royce (R., Calif.), the committee's chairman, asked if there has been any reaction to Trump's warning.
Haley told Royce that the Trump administration has not observed an incident yet but said the president's statement was still necessary because the U.S. had seen similar preparations to what occurred before the Assad regime used chemical weapons on civilians on April 4.
After the April 4 chemical weapons attack, which killed dozens of people including children, the U.S. military launched cruise missiles at a Syrian government airfield.
Haley said Trump's message was also a warning to Iran and Russia, both of which support Assad in the Syrian conflcit, "that this was something we were not going to put up with."
"So I would like to think that the president saved many innocent men, women, and children," Haley said.
SEE ALSO: Why the White House scrambled to put out a new warning about chemical weapons in Syria
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