Haley: No political solution in Syria with Assad in power

The Syrian foreign minister denied the government’s involvement in the Idlib incident, saying it had never nor would it ever use chemical weapons on either civilians or terrorists operating in the country.

The previous day US President Donald Trump said pictures of the Khan Sheikhun victims in agony, had “an enormous impact” on him.

But Trump also has faced some bipartisan pushback from lawmakers who have long insisted that presidents must seek congressional approval for acts of war. It is unclear whether Moscow had advance knowledge of this week’s chemical strike, but it certainly is angry at USA actions since.

Saturday’s phone call was the first between the top diplomats of Russian Federation and the United States since the strikes on the Syrian airfield.

“Assad choked out the lives of helpless men, women and children”, Trump declared.

Mr Tillerson’s comments came just a few days after the U.S. fired dozens of cruise missiles at the Syrian airbase that was allegedly used in the chemical attack.

“I’m disappointed in that response”, said US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson. Officials said a drone belonging to either Russian Federation or Syria was seen hovering over the site after the assault earlier this week. He said he expects the country’s third-most active, Saqqal air base, which is also located in central Syria, will fill the vacuum created by the destruction at Shayrat. He didn’t give precise numbers.

Either way, if there is to be a “Trump doctrine” for foreign policy intervention, Thursday night’s missile strikes will nearly certainly be seen as the start of it. Half of Republicans would like the US involvement to be limited to airstrikes or diplomacy, and the majority of Democrats favored diplomatic efforts alone.

The US missile strike on Syria contained a clear message for North Korea and its main ally China, analysts said, but not one strong enough to push Pyongyang off its nuclear weapons path.

“No child of God should ever suffer such horror”, Trump told reporters after his strike.

In this handout provided by the U.S. Navy, The guided-missile destroyer USS Porter fires a Tomahawk land attack missile on April 7, 2017 in the Mediterranean Sea. Mr Tillerson is intending to travel to Moscow himself after the G7 meeting and it would seem that he doubts that Mr Johnson would have been a useful sherpa to scout out that particular summit.

Does President Trump need approval from Congress to take further action in Syria?

“This clearly indicates the president is willing to take decisive action when called for”, Tillerson said.

“Assad’s principal backer is Russian Federation”. From San Francisco to NY, people spoke out against President Donald Trump’s show of power.

“President Putin views the U.S. strikes on Syria as aggression against a sovereign state in violation of the norms of worldwide law and on a made-up up pretext”, said a Kremlin statement.

For now at least, this strike seems to have been a limited punishment, not the start of another USA -backed Middle East regime change. Trump issued the order to execute the cruise-missile strike at 3.45pm NY time, the person said.

Russian Federation and Iran, Assad’s allies, pose other problems.

Before the strikes, USA military officials said they informed their Russian counterparts of the impending attack.

USA officials informed Russian forces ahead of the missile strikes and avoided hitting Russian personnel.

Nevertheless, Russia’s Deputy U.N. ambassador Vladimir Safronkov warned that any negative consequences from the strikes would be on the “shoulders of those who initiated such a doubtful and tragic enterprise”. While one should not expect this administration to have learned any lessons from previous USA imperial adventures in the region, especially Iraq, the country’s security concerns continue to revolve around the amorphous threat posed by global “terrorism”, including the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant group (ISIL, also known as ISIS).

“For his part, Tillerson on Friday said he was disappointed” by Russia’s reaction “because it indicates their continued support” for the Syrian regime of President Bashar al-Assad.

But there have been repeated allegations of chemical weapons use by the government since then. “This has absolutely nothing to do with attempts to find out what happened to the chemical weapons”, Zakharov said.

Mr Assad’s office said Damascus would respond by striking its enemies harder.

The show of force in Syria raises legal questions.