US Attacks Syria: Condemnations & Support

Local Editor

The US launched a military strike of over 50 Tomahawk cruise missiles on a Syria's al-Shayrat base located about 40 kilometers [25 miles] from the city of Homs, the Pentagon had confirmed.

Speaking on Thursday night, US President Donald Trump confirmed he ordered the strike, reiterating claims that the Syrian government was behind the alleged chemical attack.

However, Senator Rand Paul said that Trump should have asked for authorization from Congress before launching the Thursday missile strike against a military field in Syria as required by the constitution.

"The President needs Congressional authorization for military action as required by the Constitution," Paul wrote in a message via Twitter on Thursday. "Our prior interventions in this region have done nothing to make us safer and Syria will be no different."

Russian President Vladimir Putin "regards the strikes as aggression against a sovereign nation," his spokesman Dmitry Peskov said, noting that the president believes the strikes were carried out "in violation of international law, and also under an invented pretext."

Peskov also insisted that "the Syrian army doesn't have chemical weapons," saying this had been "observed and confirmed by the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, a special UN unit."

Putin sees the US missile strike on Syria as an attempt to distract attention from civilian casualties in Iraq, Peskov added.

"This step deals significant damage to US-Russian ties, which are already in a deplorable state," Peskov said.
Chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee in the Russian upper house of parliament, Konstantin Kosachev wrote on Facebook, "the sharp tougher US stance toward [Syrian President Bashar] Assad occurred only a couple of days after its softening."

"There is a firm impression that neither the Pentagon nor the US special services agreed with this thesis, and Trump was immediately pinned to yet another wall of 'irrefutable evidence'," Kosachev stated.

On the US attack on Syria, Kosachev posted: "In one way or another, Russian cruise missiles continue to strike terrorists, and American ones strike government forces, which, in fact, lead the war against terrorists."

Viktor Ozerov, head of the defense committee in the Russian Federation Council, told state news agency RIA: "US strikes on [the] Syrian aviation base may undermine the efforts in the fight against terrorism in Syria. Russia will demand an urgent UN Security Council meeting after the US airstrike on Syrian aviation base."
He went on to say: "This is an act of aggression against a UN member."

Ozerov added that cooperation between the Russian and US military branches may be shut down after the strike on the al-Shayrat Airfield near Homs.

Homs Governor Talal Barazi said US missile strikes serve the goals of "armed terrorist groups" and Daesh, reiterating that the "aggression" will not prevent the Syrian government from "fighting terrorism."

"This attack will not prevent us from continuing fighting terrorism. We are not surprised to see America and Israel supporting this terrorism," Barazi said in a phone interview with state television.

Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Bahram Qasemi said Iran "strongly condemns" US President Donald Trump's military strike against the Syrian government, according to Iranian state media.

"The Islamic Republic of Iran, as the biggest victim of chemical weapons in modern history, condemns any use of chemical weapons no matter who uses it or who the victims are," he told Iran's semi-official news agency ISNA.

"At the same time, using this excuse for unilateral actions is dangerous, destructive and counter to the norms of international law.

"We strongly condemn any unilateral military action and the missile attack on the al-Shayrat airbase in Syria by the US Navy and believe that such actions, which use the excuse of a suspicious chemical attack in Khan Sheikhoun in Idlib, whose timing and perpetrators are shrouded in a cloud of doubt, only strengthens terrorists who were already weak and adds to the complexity in Syria and the region."

Earlier in the day, Japanese Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida said that Tokyo was checking the information about the US strike, and that Japan would express its position it obtained all the information.

Accordingly, Japan had called a UN Security Council emergency meeting in the wake of the US missile strike on an airfield in Syria's Homs province, media reported citing a government source.

Similarly, following the US strike on Syria, Russia demanded and urgent UNSC meeting. Bolivia had requested a closed-door UN Security Council to be held on Friday.

"Russia will first of all demand an urgent meeting of the UN Security Council. This can be regarded as an act of aggression on the part of the US against a UN state," Ozerov told Sputnik on Friday, commenting on the Thursday US attack.

"After this incident the already clouded relations with the US will somewhat worsen," Ozerov said, adding that the missile attack will likely be "a very bad example for the armed opposition in Syria, which could put under question the agreements reached with the opposition, including in Geneva."

Meanwhile, the UK government had released a statement saying it "fully supports" the US action in Syria and thinks it was "an appropriate response" to the alleged chemical weapons attack earlier in the week.

"Overnight, the US has taken military action against the Syrian regime, targeting the airfield in Shayrat which was used to launch the chemical weapons attack earlier this week," the statement said.

"The UK Government fully supports the US action, which we believe was an appropriate response to the barbaric chemical weapons attack launched by the Syrian regime, and is intended to deter further attacks."

For his part, "Israeli" Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had welcomed the US attack on a Syrian air base saying he "fully supports" President Trump's decision.

Netanyahu said Friday in a statement that "In both word and action" Trump "sent a strong and clear message" that "the use and spread of chemical weapons will not be tolerated."

The "Israeli" entity's Channel 2 TV said the apartheid entity along with other allies was notified about the US strike.

The foreign-backed National Coalition, an alliance of terrorist groups, said it "welcomes the strike" and urged Washington to neutralize Syria's ability to carry out air raids.

"We hope for more strikes... and that these are just the beginning," coalition spokesman Ahmad Ramadan was quoted by the French news agency AFP as saying.

The Saudi kingdom also joined the militants to laud US strikes against Syria, calling it a "courageous decision" by Trump.

In the meantime, Turkey welcomed the US air strike on a Syrian airbase early Friday as a "positive" move.

Source: News Agencies, Edited by website team