World leaders react to the US attack on Syrian military bases

Following are the latest developments on the US missile strikes on Syrian military assets early on Friday.

A hail of US missiles fired from warships in the eastern Mediterranean hit the Shayrat airbase in Syria in what the US said was retaliation for what President Donald Trump said was a "barbaric" chemical attack on a rebel-held town in northwestern Syria by the Damascus regime

12.26pm — China warns of deterioration in Syria with Xi visit in US 

BEIJING (AFP): China on Friday warned against "further deterioration" of the situation in Syria, just hours after a US air strike on a Syrian airbase in response to a suspected chemical attack. The warning came as Xi Jinping met with US President Donald Trump at his Florida resort in Mar-a-Lago, where the Chinese leader had just hours earlier extended an invitation to the billionaire politician to pay a state visit to China later this year, according to the official Xinhua news agency.

China was "concerned" by the recent events in Syria, foreign ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying told reporters at a regular press briefing, adding: "What is urgent now is to avoid further deterioration of the situation.
"We oppose use of chemical weapons by any country, organisation or individual in any circumstance, for any purpose," she said

The massive strike — the first direct US action against President Bashar Al-Assad's government and Trump's biggest military decision since taking office — marked a dramatic escalation in American involvement in Syria's six-year civil war.

12.25pm — Turkish FM says Assad must go

Istanbul (Reuters): Turkey's foreign minister called for Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad's immediate removal on Friday, saying a transitional government must be established and voicing support for a US missile strike overnight on one of his air bases. "It is necessary to oust this regime as soon as possible from the leadership of Syria," Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu told reporters in the southern town of Alanya in comments broadcast live

12.13pm — 9 planes destroyed in US strikes: Russian TV 

Russian state media reported on Friday that nine planes were destroyed in US trikes on Syrian air base.  The state TV channel showed images of the bombed Syrian base, with craters and rubble and the runway "almost undamaged"

10.15am — Saudi Arabia 'fully backs' US strike on Syria base

Riyadh (AFP): Saudi Arabia said Friday that it "fully backs" a US air strike on a Syrian government airbase in retaliation for a suspected chemical weapons attack on a rebel-held town.

"Saudi Arabia fully supports the US military operations against military targets in Syria, which were a response to the regime's use of chemical weapons against innocent civilians," a foreign ministry official told the state SPA news agency. The official said the regime had only itself to blame after "odious crimes it had committed for years against the Syrian people."

He described US President Donald Trump as "courageous" for taking action when "the international community has failed to put a halt to the regime's actions."

There had been international outrage over Tuesday's suspected attack that killed dozens of civilians but Moscow stood by its Damascus ally and warned of the negative consequences of any military action

As a result, a UN Security Council debate on a Western-drafted resolution that would have sanctioned the Syrian regime was again delayed on Thursday amid Russian insistence that the chemical weapons that caused the deaths had been stockpiled by jihadists on the ground and released by a conventional strike.

Saudi Arabia had been deeply critical of Trump's predecessor Barack Obama's 2013 decision to hold off on military reprisals against the Syrian regime after a previous suspected gas attack and instead strike a deal with Russia for the UN-supervised destruction of its chemical arsenal

10.12am — Putin says US strikes on Syria illegal, harm US-Russia ties

Moscow (Reuters): Russian President Vladimir Putin believes that U.S. cruise missile strikes on a Syrian air base broke international law and have seriously hurt US-Russia relations, news agencies cited the Kremlin as saying on Friday. Putin's spokesman Dmitry Peskov was cited as saying that the Russian leader, a staunch ally of Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad, regarded the US action as "aggression against a sovereign nation" on a "made-up pretext" and as a cynical attempt to distract the world from civilian deaths in Iraq. Peskov was quoted as saying that Russia did not believe that Syria possessed chemical weapons and that the US move would inevitably create a serious obstacle to creating an international coalition to fight terrorism, an idea that Putin has repeatedly pushed

10.10am — Poland says US guarantees world peace

A Polish government spokesman, reacting to the attack on Syria, said the United States are guarantors of world peace. The spokesman said: “There are times when you need to react

10.06am — Turkish deputy PM: Keep stance against Al Assad

Turkish Deputy Prime Minister Kurtulmus said he hopes the US operation in Syria contributes to achieving peace and that the process must be accelerated. The official added the International community must maintain its stance against Syria’s Al Assad

10.02 am — Chemical attack survivor reacts to US strikes

Beirut: A survivor of the chemical attack in a northern Syrian town says he hopes the US missile attack could help put an end to Syrian government airstrikes, creating a safe area for civilians. Alaa Alyousef, a 27-year old resident of Khan Sheikhoun, said Friday the U.S. missile attack "alleviates a small part of our sufferings," but he worries it will be like "anesthetics," to save face. AlYousef said the U.S. is capable of "paralyzing" Syrian warplanes. "What good is a strike on Shayart air base alone while we have more than 15 other air bases," he said. Alyousef lost at least 25 relatives in this week's gruesome chemical attack in Khan Sheikhoun. The Syrian government denies it was behind the attack, believed to have deployed chemical weapons

10am — France was informed of US Syria strikes: FM

Nouakchott, Mauritania (Reuters): The United States informed France ahead of its missile strikes on Syrian military positions, France's Foreign Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault said on Friday. "I was told by (US Secretary of State) Rex Tillerson during the night," Ayrault told Reuters and France Info radio in the Mauritanian capital Nouakchott where he is on a diplomatic visit. "Use of chemical weapons is appalling and should be punished because it is a war crime," he said, adding that Russia and Iran needed to understand that supporting Assad made no sense, and that France was not seeking a confrontation with those two countries

9.53am — Iran condems 'destructive, dangerous' US strikes on Syria

Beirut, Ankara (AP/Reuters): Iran has condemned the US missile strike on Syria, saying the "unilateral action is dangerous, destructive and violates the principles of international law." That's according to Foreign Ministry spokesman Bahram Ghasemi. He made the comments in a report carried Friday by the semi-official ISNA news agency. Iran said on Friday denounced as "destructive and dangerous" US missile strikes against a Syrian airbase from which a deadly chemical weapons attack was launched, the Students News Agency ISNA quoted Foreign Ministry spokesman as saying. “Iran ... condemns use of chemical weapons ... but at the same time believes it is dangerous, destructive and violation of international laws to use it as an excuse to take unilateral actions," ISNA quoted Bahram Qasemi as saying. “Iran strongly condemns any such unilateral strikes... Such measures will strengthen terrorists in Syria ... and will complicate the situation in Syria and the region." Iran says it has military advisers and volunteers in Syria but denies having a conventional force on the ground. Iran is one of the biggest supporters of embattled Syrian President Bashar Assad. Its hard-line paramilitary Revolutionary Guard is deeply involved in the war

9.25am — Saudi Arabia praises ‘courageous decision’

Saudi Arabia is praising the "courageous decision" by US President Donald Trump to launch missile strikes on Syria over a deadly chemical weapons attack. A statement carried by the state-run Saudi Press Agency on Friday firmly blames the government of embattled Syrian President Bashar Assad for the chemical weapons attack. The Saudi Foreign Ministry said the missile launch by Trump was the right response to "the crimes of this regime to its people in light of the failure of the international community to stop it.

9.20 am — Missile strike likely to end Russia-US cooperation in Syria

A senior Russian lawmaker says that US strike on Syria likely has put an end to hopes for Russia-U.S. cooperation in Syria. Konstantin Kosachev, the head of the foreign affairs committee in the Kremlin-controlled upper house of parliament said on his Facebook that the prospective US-Russian anti-terror coalition has been “put to rest without even being born.” Kosachev added that "it's a pity," suggesting that Trump had been pressured to act by the Pentagon. He added that while "Russian cruise missiles strike the terrorists, US missiles strike Syrian government forces who are spearheading the fight against the terrorists.

9.10am – At least 4 killed by strikes, including a general

A Syrian opposition monitor says the U.S. missile attack on an air base in the country's center has killed at least four Syrian soldiers, including a general, and caused extensive damage. The head of the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights says the early Friday missile attack damaged over a dozen hangars, a fuel depot and an air defense base. US fired Tomahawk missiles hit the Shayrat air base, southeast of Homs, a small installation with two runways. A Syrian official the attack caused deaths and a fire, but didn't elaborate

9am — ‘Significant message’

Israel's ambassador to the UN says the U.S. sent a "significant message" to the region and beyond with the attack on a Syrian air base. Danny Danon told Channel 10 TV "it was a moral decision that delivered a triple message." He said it told the Syrians to stop using chemical weapons and sent a message to Iran and North Korea. He said it also told the international community that "if the UN is incapable of acting in these situations it will lead."

8.55am — Australia ‘strongly supports’ US action

Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull says the "Australian government strongly supports the swift and just response of the United States" in launching a rocket attack on a Syrian air base. He tells reporters in Sydney on Friday: "This was a calibrated, proportionate and targeted response. It sends a strong message to the Assad regime, and ... has been struck at the very airfield from which the chemical attack was delivered." "But we are not at war with the Assad regime and the United States have made it clear that they are not seeking to overthrow the Assad regime," he added

8.45 am — Russian FM: we are preparing a statement

Moscow: Russia's Foreign Ministry says it is preparing a statement regarding US strikes on a Syrian base. Shortly before the strikes, the head of information policy commission in the upper house of Russian parliament, Alexei Pushkov, said on Twitter said that if Trump launches a military action in Syria it would put him in "the same league with Bush and Obama." Russian deputy envoy to the UN, Vladimir Safronkov, said Russia had warned the U.S. to "think about what military actions have led to in Iraq, Libya and other countries," according to the Interfax news agency

8.30am — ‘Fire in Homs air base’

A Syrian official tells The Associated Press that the US missile attack that hit a number of military targets in central Syria has left a number of dead and wounded. Talal Barazi, the governor of Homs province, didn't say how many were killed in the early Friday attack. He said a fire raged in the air base in Homs for over an hour following the barrage of missiles. Barazi says the evacuation and transfer of casualties is ongoing. He called the air base, which is about 45 kilometers (28 miles) east of the city of Homs, a "supporting base" for Syria's fight against terrorism. Daesh group militants operate in the central Homs province. Activists and rebels say the base serves as one of the government's most active launching pad for airstrikes on all rebel areas in central and northern Syria. Syria's government calls all armed groups "terrorists

6.50am — Israel welcomes US attack

Israel's prime minister has welcomed the US attack on a Syrian air base saying he "fully supports" President Trump's decision. Benjamin 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." Israel's Channel 2 TV said Israel along with other allies was notified about the US strike. The attacks in Syria have worried Israel, which has warned against "game-changing" weapons reaching Hezbollah in Lebanon from the country, which supports the militant group. Last month Israel shot down an anti-aircraft missile fired at its planes as they struck a suspected Hezbollah weapons convoy. Israel also has treated several thousand Syrians wounded in fighting and provided humanitarian aid to some Syrian communities near the Israeli frontier in the Golan Heights

source : gulfnews