Trump evasive over Syria missiles threat
News & Trends •
us officials have refused to rule out direct military engagement with russia with the white house saying that all options are on the table1 president donald trump is now blowing cold over his missiles threat against syria as he became evasive thursday over when the united states might fire missiles at syria in retaliation for an alleged chemical weapons attack1 one day after warning regime-backer russia that missiles will be coming to syria trump in another early morning tweet storm wrote never said when an attack on syria would take place. could be very soon or not so soon at all1 tension was mounting among top world powers over the alleged chemical attack against civilians in the syrian town of douma1 frances emmanuel macron said thursday he had proof that the regime of syrian president bashar al-assad had used chemical weapons and would respond to it at a time of our choosing1 british prime minister theresa may was due to hold an emergency cabinet meeting amid speculation she will support us action against the syrian regime1 germanys angela merkel said it was obvious that syria hadnt eradicated its chemical arsenal as it had earlier claimed1 meanwhile opponents of unilateral us action called an emergency closed-door meeting of the un security council for thursday1 the white house has said that trump holds assads regime and its military backers russia responsible for an alleged attack on douma on saturday which rescue workers said killed more than 40 people1 trump on wednesday slammed russia for its military alliance with assad saying it should not be partners with a gas killing animal who kills his people and enjoys it1 he now said the missiles could come at any time1 defense secretary jim mattis said wednesday the pentagon was ready to provide options for a syria strike but that the us and its allies were still assessing the intelligence on the suspected chemical attack1 a special hotline for the us and russian militaries to communicate about operations in syria is active and being used by both sides moscow said thursday1 kremlin spokesman dmitry peskov warned that it was crucial to avoid any steps that could lead to heightened tensions in syria saying this would have an extremely destructive influence on attempts to resolve the conflict1 assad warned on thursday that threats of western military action will only contribute to further destabilisation in the region1 russia has warned the united states against carrying out a military intervention on fabricated pretexts and has accused the white helmets civil defense organization in syria of staging a fake chemical weapons attack in douma1 the russian army declared early thursday that the syrian state flag was flying in douma where the alleged chemical attack took place1 moscow said this a significant event in the history of syria meaning that the whole of eastern ghouta had come under government forces control1 rebels in syrias eastern ghouta surrendered their heavy weapons and their leader left the enclave while the syrian flag was raised over the central mosque the syrian observatory for human rights monitoring group said1 however douma residents told afp that a dispute subsequently erupted with shots fired and the flag was taken down from the mosque1