Trump Administration Sends Mixed Signals Regarding Syrian Regime Change

Following the Tuesday attack, early Friday the US fired as many as 60 Tomahawk missiles at a Syrian military airbase American officials believe was used to carry out the chemical attack.

Graham, a leading hawk in Senate, praised the Trump-led attack but called for 5,000 to 6,000 more United States troops in the region to “close the deal”.

Iran and Russian Federation have been the key backers of Assad and refer to all Syrian opposition groups as “terrorists”.

However, in a tweet about the missile strikes, Rouhani said: “I call on the world to reject such policies, which bring only destruction and danger to the region and the globe”.

Hassan Rouhani and Vladimir Putin, the Iranian and Russian presidents, said on Sunday that US airstrike against Syria was an act of invasion which ran contrary to worldwide law and the United Nations charter.

Diplomatically isolated North Korea considers Syria a key ally.

But as lawmakers called on Trump to consult with Congress on any future military strikes and a longer-term strategy on Syria, Trump administration officials sent mixed signals on the scope of US involvement.

US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said Russian Federation had failed to honor an agreement to guarantee the elimination of Syria’s chemical weapons.

A mission of professional experts should be sent to the airbase to obtain objective evidence, Interfax cited Igor Konashenkov, the defence ministry’s spokesman, as saying.

Turkish foreign minister Mevlut Cavusoglu played down concerns of a rift with Russian Federation over Ankara’s support for the strike, saying Turkey was committed to the cease-fire mechanisms it has developed with Russian Federation for Syria.

“We know there’s not any sort of option where a political solution is going to happen with Assad at the head of the regime”, she said.

The airstrikes on the opposition-held northern town of Khan Sheikhoun, where 87 people were killed in the chemical attack earlier this week, killed a woman and wounded her son, according to the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights and the Local Coordination Committees, an activist collective.

New airstrikes targeted a town in Syria that was hit by a chemical attack earlier this week, activists said, less than a day after the United States bombarded a Syrian air base to “send a message” to the Assad regime.

SOHR said 15 people, including four children, were killed in Hneida attack.

“Russians should ask themselves: ‘What are we doing here?”

On Sunday, Tillerson emphasized that the administration considers defeating the Sunni militants of Islamic State the most pressing concern in Syria, not ousting Assad.

It’s not clear whether the new attack was launched from Shayrat, the base damaged by 59 U.S. Tomahawk missiles.

The secretary of state said North Korea, amid recent ballistic missile testing, can take note that the United States and its allies would respond “if you violate global norms, if you violate worldwide agreements, if you fail to live up to commitments, if you become a threat to others”. Tillerson said he was disappointed in the Russian response.