UK Prime Minister Theresa May has rushed to react the alleged chemical attack, which was claimed to have taken place in Syria’s Douma recently and was swiftly blamed on Damascus.
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Trump on Tuesday cancelled plans to travel to South America later this week, choosing to stay in the United States to manage the response to the events in Syria.
Trump also spoke to French President Emmanuel Macron in a phone call on Monday.
But France’s permanent representative Francois Delattre countered that only the Syrian government and its allies had the capability of developing the chemical and said that there was no doubt about who carried out the attacks.
It ambassador to the UN, Vassily Nebenzia, earlier warned of the potential consequences to Western intervention in Syria, saying that USA attacks on Syria “could lead to grave repercussions”.
“On the eve of potential U.S. and French strikes against Assad in response to the Douma gas attack, it is likely the Israelis already had the intention to strike at the T-4 base, and timed their attack to maximise the destruction they could inflict on Iranian forces”, he told AFP.
A senior Russian lawmaker says Moscow is willing to help arrange a visit this week for experts from the global chemical weapons watchdog to the site of a suspected poison gas attack in Syria.
Global officials are working to try to confirm a suspected poison gas attack in the besieged rebel-held Syrian town of Douma on Saturday, which aid groups said killed dozens of people.
The OPCW confirmed Monday it planned to send a fact-finding mission to Douma, but declined to reveal a timetable. We should go back to the United Nations.
“Russia is being unpardonably threatened”. “The tone with which this is being done is going beyond the threshold of what is acceptable, even during the Cold War”. He wrote on Twitter that “President Putin, Russia and Iran are responsible” for their support of, in his words, “Animal Assad”.
Vassily Nebenzia said United States attacks on Syria “could lead to grave repercussions”, during heated UN Security Council exchanges.
This reflects a view in the White House that deeper Russian and Iranian involvement in Syria have complicated calculations about a response to any USA military attack.
The US and Russian Federation have traded barbs at a UN Security Council meeting on the alleged chemical attack in Syria.
Donald Trump may launch a bombing campaign in Syria, calling it retaliation for Assad’s alleged poison gas use, although in reality it will be to steer the story away from the U.S. leader, journalist Dave Lindorff told RT. The target list could include what’s left of Syria’s dwindling number of attack jets, Russian warplanes at Hmeimim air base in northwestern Syria, or headquarters where Assad’s military officers command and control forces.
“We are beyond showing pictures of dead babies”.
On Saturday, medical emergency crews said they found families suffocated in their homes and shelters near Damascus.
Douma is the last rebel stronghold in eastern Ghouta, a region that has faced an intensive bombing campaign by Assad’s forces. If Trump decides to proceed quickly, the most likely partner would be France rather than Britain, because of concerns about obtaining permission from Parliament, said the official, who wasn’t authorized to discuss the planning publicly and requested anonymity.
By this month, after visiting Syria at least 18 times to inspect sites and meet Syrian officials, the technical secretariat of the OPCW remained unable to “verify that Syria had submitted a declaration that could be considered accurate and complete”.
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A Syrian airbase was struck by missiles a little more than 24 hours after the alleged chemical attack, an airstrike that Syria and Russian Federation have blamed on Israel. The airfield, about 25 miles from the Syrian capital of Damascus, has hosted Syrian attack helicopters as well as Russian advisors. “Allowing Iran to strengthen itself in Syria is like accepting that the Iranians strangle us”.
