Mr Trump did not give a time frame for any retaliatory action, but said the U.S. could not stand by as such atrocities take place because “we are able to stop it”.
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The poisoning of Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia with what the British government says was a military-grade Novichok nerve agent of a type developed by Russia led to the mass expulsion of Russian diplomats by Western allies, to which Moscow responded in kind.
One year ago this month, Trump ordered dozens of cruise missiles to be fired at a Syrian air base after declaring there was no doubt Assad had “choked out the lives of helpless” civilians in an attack that used banned gases.
The White House says President Donald Trump is focused on responding to the apparent use of chemical weapons in Syria.
He highlighted what he said was the power of the United States to stop atrocities like the attack Saturday in rebel-held eastern Ghouta that killed at least 40 people.
Experts believe North Atlantic Treaty Organisation allies will have a strong response to the situation even if a strike is not involved.
Further, asked directly if military force is on the table as an option, Trump said that all options are on the table. Putin made the remarks during a telephone conversation with German Chancellor Angela Merkel, Xinhua quoted a Kremlin statement as saying.
The raid on the T4 airfield in Homs province comes as tensions rise over possible USA military action in Syria in response to a suspected chemical weapons attack on a Damascus suburb late Saturday.
Access to the area, which has faced weeks of regime bombardment, is limited and AFP has not independently verified the accounts.
The president’s comments came after Moscow’s ambassador to the United Nations warned of the potential consequences to Western intervention in Syria.
Both the Syrian government and its Russian backers deny responsibility for the attack.
State news agency SANA said all the remaining hostages in Douma had left on two buses late on Monday.
Washington and Paris denied any involvement.
According to the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, most of the 14 killed were either Iranian forces or Iran-backed proxies supporting the Syrian government.
Iran’s Fars news agency said four Iranian military advisers were killed in the strike and the foreign ministry in Tehran accused Israel of “flagrant aggression”.
Footage from the area showed bodies strewn across the floor of an air raid shelter.
Now the world waits to see just how this tough talk may translate into action.
“We must not overlook Russian Federation and Iran’s roles in enabling the Assad regime’s murderous destruction”, she continued.
The attack comes about a week after Trump told military leaders to draw up plans to prepare a withdrawal of the remaining USA troops from Syria.
Most recently, Israel hit the same T4 base in February, after it said an Iranian drone that had violated Israeli airspace took off from the base. Syrian air defences shot down an IAF F-16 that was returning from the mission, but only after it flew back into Israeli airspace.
Russian Federation was a guarantor of a deal the Obama administration struck in 2013 in which Syria was to have removed all of its chemical weapons.
As part of the surrender deal, the Jaish al-Islam group which controlled the town released scores of people it had been holding.
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Meanwhile on the ground, thousands of militants and their families arrived in rebel-held northwestern Syria after surrendering Douma to government forces.
