United Nations rejects Russian call to condemn Syria strikes

The tension comes after the U.N. Security Council knocked back on Tuesday two rival resolutions from the USA and Russian Federation proposing separate investigations into Saturday’s alleged chemical weapons attack in Syria.

He said BZ was part of chemical arsenals of the U.S., Britain and other North Atlantic Treaty Organisation countries, while the Soviet Union and Russian Federation never developed the agent.

President Donald Trump has put off a final decision on possible military strikes against Syria after tweeting earlier that they could happen “very soon or not so soon at all”.

Russia, the Syrian regime’s top ally, reacted strongly to the air strikes launched by the United States and its allies on Damascus and Homs early Saturday, warning of “consequences”.

Macron said the attack was “limited to the Syrian regime’s facilities enabling the production and employment of chemical weapons”. The Russians in Syria have advanced air defences capable of shooting down cruise missiles and attacking aircraft, and they may well possess in-country anti-ship missiles that could hit USA warships in the eastern Mediterranean if matters escalate.

“Nevertheless we hope that common sense will prevail in the end”, he said, in a meeting with new Russian ambassadors.

The U.S. and other nations have condemned Syria’s apparent use of a poisonous gas to attack Douma’s civilians, particularly because it occurred in an area that was supposed to have been off-limits to warplanes.

“We rule out the situation developing into a direct American-Russian clash or a wide state of war”, Sheikh Naim Qassem told Lebanese daily al-Joumhouria in an interview.

Russia’s foreign minister has called US-led strikes in Syria unacceptable and lawless.

The Russian leader warned against “ill-considered and unsafe actions … that would have consequences beyond conjecture”.

Syria’s chief allies, Russian Federation and Iran, called the use of force by the United States, Britain and France a “military crime” and “act of aggression” with the potential to worsen a humanitarian crisis after years of civil war.

“All nations and all people will be harmed if we allow Assad to normalize the use of chemical weapons”, she said. James Mattis said at a press conference Friday night.

Trump, who unleashed a one-off USA cruise missile salvo a year ago in response to a chemical attack blamed on Assad s forces, reacted with fury and threatened a renewed intervention. British Prime Minister Theresa May and French President Emmanuel Macron said the United Kingdom and France had joined in the attack.

“I rule out a scenario in which the United States will intentionally strike a facility in Syria where Russian servicemen are located”, Military Sciences Academy Vice President Sergei Modestov said in Thursday’s edition of the government newspaper Rossiyskaya Gazeta. The U.S. didn’t give Russian Federation early notice of the targets but used a hotline to ensure the airspace was clear.

But Russia’s Defence Ministry claimed Britain was involved in “faking” the attack, which a Syrian medical relief group said killed at least 60 people, including children. “After that statement, the USA and all other Western media should be aware of their responsibility for what has happened”.

Konstantin Kosachyov, chairman of the global affairs committee in the upper house of parliament, said the strikes appeared to have been aimed at preventing an investigation of the alleged chemical-weapons attack that Washington cited as the justification.