USA officials said the base was used to launch a chemical weapons attack that killed dozens of civilians on Tuesday. These things have been on the shelf for years.
After President Donald Trump’s election victory, the United States and Russian Federation appeared headed toward their smoothest ties in decades. “I think that should be a minimum standard throughout the world”, according to a transcript provided by the White House.
Blunt added that he’s always thought “more could and should be done” in Syria.
U.S. officials have said that the strike was a “one-off”, aimed at deterring future chemical weapons attacks.
And a desire to look different from Obama when it came to red lines – a chance to show he would respond with military force, unlike his predecessor.
“I continue to follow the situation in Syria closely and with grave concern”, said Mr. Guterres in a statement.
Like Blunt, Kansas Reps. Syria’s military said seven of its own troops were killed. “For any specialist, it is clear that a decision on the missile strike on Syria was taken in Washington long before the events in the village Khan Sheikhoun”, said the Defense Ministry. He has also floated the idea of establishing “safe zones” in Syria. The world is waiting for the Russian government to act responsibly in Syria.
Earlier this week, Russian Federation and China vetoed new United Nations sanctions on Syria, refusing to hold Assad’s regime accountable for the use of chemical weapons.
“The President needs Congressional authorization for military action as required by the Constitution”, he said in a statement.
However, the administration has adopted a much tougher line on Assad.
“Your responsibility to do so is prescribed in the Constitution and the War Powers Resolution of 1973”, the letter reads. When Obama intervened in Libya in 2011, he used a U.N. Security Council mandate and NATO’s overall leadership of the mission to argue that he had legal authority – arguments many Republicans opposed.
USA ambassador Nikki Haley said America had acted to ensure President Bashar al-Assad would never use chemical weapons again.
British Prime Minister Theresa May’s office says the action was “an appropriate response to the barbaric chemical weapons attack launched by the Syrian regime, and is meant to deter further attacks”. “Even attractive babies were cruelly murdered in this very barbaric attack”, the president said. Assad did this because he thought he could get away with it.
“It could be that the Assad regime is playing the Russians for fools”, Haley said. So have key Congress people on both sides of the aisle. “Based on intelligence we have received over the past several hours, the attack on the al-Shayrat air base in Homs has successfully eliminated all discussions and allegations about my administration’s ties to the Russian government”, said Trump, adding that at approximately 4:40 a.m. local time, 59 Tomahawk cruise missiles fired from USA naval ships obliterated all traces of the widespread controversy in news outlets across the media. “At least it is a message to Syria that their blood is not cheap”. “Since then President Obama and Secretary Kerry assured us all chemical weapons were out of Syria, which this heinous attack shows clearly wasn’t the case”.
But experts said the USA strike showed Moscow was likely unwilling – as well as unable – to stop an attack against a determined Washington. And rarely has an American president seemed more inclined to impulsive responses than this one.
The Syrian Observatory said the USA strike on the base killed eight Syrian military staff, including an army doctor. But the Russians also said they would bolster Syria’s air defense systems, and have been reported to be planning to send a frigate into the Mediterranean Sea to visit the logistics base at the Syrian port of Tartus.
The UAE expressed its full support for the USA strikes in retaliation for the chemical attacks. “I just hope it wasn’t an impulsive reaction, but rather part of a broader plan and strategy”.