U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley gave a speech today in which she sharply criticized Russia, saying it was “long past time” for them to stop covering for the Assad regime in Syria.

“To my colleagues from Russia, you are isolating yourselves from the international community every time one of Assad’s planes drop another barrel bomb on civilians and every time Assad tries to starve another community to death,” Haley said.

“People, not just in the West but across the Middle East and the world are speaking out against Assad’s brutality,” she said. She continued, “It is long past time for Russia to stop covering for Assad. It is long past time for Russia to push seriously for peace and not continue to be part of the problem.”

A bit later Haley called for inspectors to be given access to the base where it is believed the chemical weapons attack was launched and called for a cease-fire. “We need to see Russia choose to side with the civilized world over an Assad government that brutally terrorizes its own people,” Haley said.

When she was done addressing Russia’s role, Haley turned to Iran saying, “Iran is dumping fuel on the flames of this war in Syria so it can expand its own reach.”

Haley didn’t spare the United Nations itself. “Month after month we all repeat the same points in this chamber,” she said. She continued, “This council’s relevance depends on taking action to condemn those responsible for violence and to hold them accountable for defying this council’s demands.”

Haley said the U.S. is ready to do its part to bring about peace but was “looking for partners” who were ready to act.

It has to be said there is no evidence Russia is prepared to side with the civilized world over Assad. On the contrary, Putin’s most recent statement, in which he suggested there would be additional false flag chemical attacks in Syria intended to cast blame on the Assad regime, sounded like something that could have come from Alex Jones. But the U.S. is not buying it. We know Assad was behind the attack and we suspect Russia was complicit.

Video of Haley’s remarks clipped by the Washington Free Beacon.