Nikki Haley
Nikki HaleyReuters

US Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley on Saturday told the UN Security Council that the US is "locked and loaded" to strike if Syrian President Bashar al-Assad uses chemical weapons again.

"The United States of America will not allow the Assad regime to continue to use chemical weapons. Last night, we obliterated the major research facility that it used to assemble weapons of mass murder," Haley said at the meeting, which was called by Russia.

"I spoke to the president this morning and he said if the Syrian regime uses this poisonous gas again, the United States is locked and loaded."

"When our our president draws a red line, our president enforces the red line.

"Chemical weapons are a threat to us all. They are unique threat, a type of weapon so evil that the international community agreed they must be banned. We cannot stand by and let Russia trash every international norm that we stand for, and allow the use of chemical weapons to go unanswered. And just as the Syrian regime’s use of chemical weapons last weekend was not an isolated incident, our response is part of a new course charted last year to deter future use of chemical weapons.

Haley also warned that the US is prepared to continue the battle.

"We are confident that we have crippled Syria's chemical weapons program. We are prepared to sustain this pressure, if the Syrian regime is foolish enough to test our will," she said.