BBC Online :
World leaders have been responding to US President Donald Trump’s overnight missile strikes on a Syrian government air base suspected of launching a chemical attack on a rebel-held town on Tuesday.
President Bashar al-Assad’s office has spoken out against the US airstrikes. “What America did is nothing but foolish and irresponsible behaviour, which only reveals its short-sightedness and political and military blindness to reality,” it said. Dmitry Peskov, spokesman for the Russian President Vladimir Putin, described the US air strikes on the Shayrat airbase as “an act of aggression against a sovereign state delivered in violation of international law under a far-fetched pretext”. His statement said Washington’s actions had “dealt a serious blow to Russian-US relations, which are already in a poor state”. The strikes would “create a major obstacle to the establishment of an international counterterrorist coalition”, it added. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov called it “an act of aggression under a completely invented pretext”. “Everything resembles the
situation of 2003, when the USA, the UK and several of their allies invaded Iraq without the UN Security Council’s approval – a grave violation of international law – but at that point they at least tried to show some material evidence.” The UK government said it fully supported the strikes and had been in close contact with the US government beforehand. Defence Secretary Michael Fallon told the BBC: “The Americans believe they’ve exhausted all possible diplomatic and peaceful ways of dealing with the use by the regime of chemical weapons and they have been determined to try to prevent future attacks like this so they’ve taken this action today.”
He said the US “hasn’t declared war” on Syria and the UK had not been asked to get involved.
The President of the European Council, Donald Tusk, tweeted his reaction to the unilateral airstrikes.
Jean-Claude Juncker, President of the European Commission, said in a statement: “The US has informed the EU that these strikes were limited and seek to deter further chemical weapons atrocities.” “The repeated use of such weapons must be answered.” Jens Stoltenberg, Secretary General of defence alliance Nato, said in a statement: “The Syrian regime bears the full responsibility for this development. “Any use of chemical weapons is unacceptable, cannot go unanswered, and those responsible must be held accountable.”
World leaders have been responding to US President Donald Trump’s overnight missile strikes on a Syrian government air base suspected of launching a chemical attack on a rebel-held town on Tuesday.
President Bashar al-Assad’s office has spoken out against the US airstrikes. “What America did is nothing but foolish and irresponsible behaviour, which only reveals its short-sightedness and political and military blindness to reality,” it said. Dmitry Peskov, spokesman for the Russian President Vladimir Putin, described the US air strikes on the Shayrat airbase as “an act of aggression against a sovereign state delivered in violation of international law under a far-fetched pretext”. His statement said Washington’s actions had “dealt a serious blow to Russian-US relations, which are already in a poor state”. The strikes would “create a major obstacle to the establishment of an international counterterrorist coalition”, it added. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov called it “an act of aggression under a completely invented pretext”. “Everything resembles the
situation of 2003, when the USA, the UK and several of their allies invaded Iraq without the UN Security Council’s approval – a grave violation of international law – but at that point they at least tried to show some material evidence.” The UK government said it fully supported the strikes and had been in close contact with the US government beforehand. Defence Secretary Michael Fallon told the BBC: “The Americans believe they’ve exhausted all possible diplomatic and peaceful ways of dealing with the use by the regime of chemical weapons and they have been determined to try to prevent future attacks like this so they’ve taken this action today.”
He said the US “hasn’t declared war” on Syria and the UK had not been asked to get involved.
The President of the European Council, Donald Tusk, tweeted his reaction to the unilateral airstrikes.
Jean-Claude Juncker, President of the European Commission, said in a statement: “The US has informed the EU that these strikes were limited and seek to deter further chemical weapons atrocities.” “The repeated use of such weapons must be answered.” Jens Stoltenberg, Secretary General of defence alliance Nato, said in a statement: “The Syrian regime bears the full responsibility for this development. “Any use of chemical weapons is unacceptable, cannot go unanswered, and those responsible must be held accountable.”
