(CNN) The US ambassador to the United Nations, Nikki Haley, has told CNN that removing Syrian President Bashar al-Assad from power is a priority, cementing an extraordinary U-turn in the Trump administration's stance on the embattled leader. Two days after the US launched military strikes on a Syrian airbase in response to a chemical weapons attack widely blamed on the Assad regime, Haley said Assad's departure was inevitable. But before Tuesday's chemical attack on the rebel-held town of Khan Sheikhoun, which killed 89 people, Haley had said toppling Assad was not a priority. President Donald Trump, before his election, described fighting ISIS and seeking Assad's removal at the same time as "idiocy."Haley says Assad hinders political solution for SyriaShe warns US could carry out more strikes on regime
Secondly, we don't see a peaceful _ with Assad in there. The decision to carry out strikes against the regime and the change in tone from _ follows Trump's comments that the chemical attack "crossed a lot of lines for me." "If you look at his actions, if you look at the situation, it's going to be hard to see a government that's peaceful and stable with _," she said. "Regime change is something that we think is going to happen because all of the parties are going to see that _ is not the leader that needs to be taking place for Syria." Five days before the Khan Sheikhoun attack, Haley had indicated the US had ditched the Obama administration's policy of removing _. "Either they knew that there were chemical weapons and they knew there was going to be chemical weapon use, and they just hid it from the international community, or they are being played for fools by _ -- by him having chemical weapons and they're just in the dark and they don't know anything about it," she said.