UN Spox Left Speechless When Confronted Over U.S. Occupation of Syria While Lecturing About Ukraine Conflict

A UN spokesman struggled to explain how the U.S. was not violating the international “rules based order” by continuing its military occupation inside Syria.

In a clip from March receiving renewed interest online, UN Deputy Spokesman for the Secretary-General Farhan Haq was confronted by Chinese journalist Edward Xu over the hypocrisy of the U.S. foreign policy of occupying any nation they wish but condemning other nations for doing the same.

“Do you think the presence of the U.S. military in Syria is illegal or not?” Xu asked Haq.

Chinese journalist Edward Xu asking all the right questions.

See this bullshit UN spokesperson, Farhan Haq, trying to seek an excuse for the illegal US military occupation of Syria.

“Rules based order”

My ass…..
😂😂😂😂 pic.twitter.com/VQ5OzFiIVO

— Richard (@ricwe123) July 4, 2023

Haq was caught flat-footed by the question.

“Uh, that’s not an issue that we’re- that we’re dealing with at this stage. There’s been a war…” he responded, referring to the Syrian civil war that kicked off in 2011, over a decade ago.

Xu suggested the situation “sounds very familiar” to the ongoing conflict in Ukraine, where Russia has decided to occupy a portion of Ukraine’s eastern territory.

“Because it sounds very familiar,” Xu said. “This week we talk a lot about the UN Charter, the international law and relative resolutions. But it sounds to me, a foreign presence in another country without invitation sounds like something else to me.”

Haq dodged the question, saying, “I’ll leave your analysis to you. That there’s- at this stage….in Syria there’s no…”

Xu pushed forward, asking, “What’s the difference between the situation in Syria and the situation in Ukraine?”

Haq insisted there’s “no US armed forces inside of Syria.”

“So I don’t have a…it’s not a parallel situation,” Haq added, clarifying there’s U.S. “military activity” but no “ground presence” in Syria.

But Xu pointed out that earlier this year, 5 U.S. service members were wounded in a suicide drone strike in Syria that resulted in retaliatory airstrikes against Iranian-linked targets in Syria.

“Five U.S. soldiers were injured in that attack. If there were no U.S. service members in Syria, how could they [have gotten] injured?” Xu asked.

Haq was left speechless.

“That’s weird right?” Xu asked. “Should I asked you about that?”

Of course there are still U.S. troops in Syria, because the U.S. House of Representatives in February voted down a proposal put forward by Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) to withdraw those troops from the region.

“Congress has never authorized the use of military force in Syria,” Gaetz said in a statement upon introducing the bill. “The United States is currently not in a war with or against Syria, so why are we conducting dangerous military operations there? President [Joe] Biden must remove all U.S. armed forces from Syria.”

Watch the full UN meeting: