Syria ally Russia has warned of “consequences” following the launch of US-led strikes against Bashar al-Assad’s regime in retaliation for a suspected chemical attack.
This photograph obtained April 14, 2018 from the Twitter account of French Defense Minister, Florence Parly, shows French military aircraft launching early April 14, 2018, as western strikes hit Syrian military bases and research centres in and around the capital and the country's centre. (Photo: AFP PHOTO / FRENCH DEFENCE MINISTER FLORENCE PARLY)
Syria ally Russia has warned of “consequences” following the launch of US-led strikes against Bashar al-Assad’s regime in retaliation for a suspected chemical attack.
“Again, we are being threatened,” Russia’s ambassador to the US, Anatoly Antonov, said in a statement.
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“We warned that such actions will not be left without consequences. All responsibility for them rests with Washington, London and Paris.”
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“Insulting the President of Russia is unacceptable and inadmissible,” added the envoy, after President Donald Trump directly called out his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin over his support for the Assad regime.
Russia’s foreign ministry said that Western strikes on Syria came as the country had “a chance of a peaceful future.”
Foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova wrote on Facebook: “Those behind all this claim moral leadership in the world and declare they are exceptional. You need to be really exceptional to shell Syria’s capital at the moment when it had gained a chance of a peaceful future.”
Huge blasts were reported around Damascus early on Saturday, moments after the US, France, and Britain announced they were striking Syria’s chemical weapons capabilities.
The joint operation came one week after a suspected chemical attack outside Damascus left more than 40 people dead.
Zakharova suggested that Western media bore some responsibility for the strikes, claiming the White House cited “multiple media sources” on the suspected chemical weapons attack in Douma.
“American and other Western media must understand their responsibility for what happened,” Zakharova wrote.
The Russian defence ministry and the Kremlin have yet to make any comment on the strikes announced by US President Donald Trump.
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