Assad supporters rally in Damascus after Western strikes
- by Leona Burton
- in World Media
- — Apr 17, 2018
OPCW director-general Ahmet Uzumcu said Syrian and Russian officials had cited "pending security issues" in keeping its inspectors from reaching Douma.
Col. Gen. Sergei Rudskoi of the Russian military's General Staff says Saturday's strike hasn't caused any casualties and Syrian military facilities targeted by the U.S., Britain and France have suffered only minor damage.
However, the foreign minister also said the Kremlin would be instrumental in securing a political settlement.
Morocco has deplored the deterioration of the situation in the Middle East, including last week's military escalation in Syria, and has said that "military options" will not only make quest for political solutions hard but will deepen civilian suffering and "heighten anti-West sentiment".
The report comes a few days after the U.S., Britain and France conducted airstrikes targeting alleged chemical weapons facilities in Syria, in retaliation for a suspected chemical weapons attack that they blamed on the Syrian government.
Russian Federation and Syria have denied that chemical weapons were used at all and said their own investigators had been to the area and found no trace of them.
More news: Android Apps Violating Children Online Privacy Protection ActOn Sunday, Syria's state-run Al-Ikhbariya TV broadcast interviews with almost a dozen doctors and medics who said they found no trace of poison gas in Douma.
"The U.S. mission has not changed - the president has been clear that he wants U.S. forces to come home as quickly as possible", White House spokeswoman Sarah Sanders said.
"I knew they would seize on this but felt it is such a great Military term, it should be brought back".
Nikki Haley, the United States ambassador to the UN, said that new sanctions against Russian Federation would be announced by Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin on Monday.
"The global community will not allow chemical weapons to come back into our everyday life", she said in an interview aired Sunday.
"When our president draws a red line, our president enforces the red line", Haley said at an emergency United Nations meeting called by Russian Federation. Since those coalition airstrikes, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's government has tried to show it was unaffected.
More news: United States tells watchdog Russian Federation 'may have tampered' with Douma attack site"We will defend the rights of his people even if he won't do it himself". He spoke in an interview with Turkey's NTV television on Monday.
Left-wing activists in Cyprus took to the road outside the gates of RAF Akrotiri, the British military base on the island where jets involved in the operation took off from. It was the basis for France's involvement in a joint military operation with the USA and Britain to target Syrian chemical weapons facilities. "Tomorrow (Tuesday) the security services of the United Nations. will test the routes". It is still unclear how effective the strikes will be against Syria's regime.
In the UK, Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn, Lib Dem leader Vince Cable and SNP leader Nicola Sturgeon criticised the strikes. Under the War Powers Resolution, the president must keep Congress informed of such actions.
He also called her justification on humanitarian grounds "legally debatable".
"What did take place was the staged thing", he added. I would be expecting the prime minister to have to answer some really hard questions about the situation.
The UK participated in the strikes in response to an alleged chemical attack by the Syrian regime on the rebel-held area of Douma on 7 April.
More news: Inside Gwyneth Paltrow's Engagement PartyMrs May will ask for an emergency debate to allow more time for discussion in a nod to the fury among MPs at not being consulted, but she is not offering a vote.
