Top US diplomat Nikki Haley says no Syria peace with Assad

In Saudi Arabia, the official Saudi Press Agency reported that U.S. President Donald Trump has spoken by telephone with King Salman about the U.S. missile strike on Syria.

On Friday morning, the USA launched 59 Tomahawk missiles from its warships in the eastern Mediterranean, targeting Syria’s Shayrat airbase near Homs.

Defeating Islamic State, pushing Iranian influence out of Syria, and the ouster of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad are priorities for Washington, Haley said in an interview on CNN’s “State of the Union” which will air in full on Sunday.

But Ms Haley warned that the USA was prepared to “do more” if needed, leaving the door open for more military intervention as the worldwide community awaits a response from President Assad and his allies.

Standing firm, the Trump administration on Friday signalled new sanctions would soon follow the missile attack, and the Pentagon was even probing whether Russian Federation itself was involved in the chemical weapons assault that compelled President Donald Trump to act.

“We don’t see a peaceful Syria with Assad in there”, she said.

But the cancellation of tomorrow’s meeting, which came after discussions with US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, led to him being criticised as “Washington’s poodle”, an attack dismissed by the Foreign Office.

“Without Russia’s seven vetoes in the Security Council defying the views of other members of this council, Assad would now have faced sanctions and justice, ” said Rycroft.

“Regime change is something that we think is going to happen”.

Mr Tillerson is set to meet his Russian counterpart, Sergei Lavrov, this week in Moscow.

Syria state media said the US air raid killed nine civilians, including four children.

A second senior military official described how Russian personnel were closely enmeshed in the day-to-day operations at Shayrat, although he could not say if the Russians knew for sure that the Syrian jet that unleashed the attack was carrying a chemical payload.

“If Russia wants to be absolved of responsibility for future attacks, (President) Vladimir Putin needs to enforce commitments, dismantle Assad’s chemical weapons arsenal for good and get fully engaged” with the United Nations peace process on Syria. “Vladimir Putin believes that complete disregard for factual information about the use by terrorists of chemical weapons drastically aggravates the situation”.