Rouhani, Putin: US attack on Syria is act of invasion

“I don’t see a peaceful, stable Syria in the future that has Assad in charge”, White House spokesman Sean Spicer said on Tuesday.

Their comments highlight the degree to which questions remain about the nature of USA policy in Syria after President Donald Trump authorised missile strikes against a government air base believed to have been involved in the deployment of chemical weapons against civilians last week.

US officials are confident Syria carried out the attacks – not rebels, as Russian Federation claims – which would be an embarrassment for President Vladimir Putin, who was credited as the deal-maker in Assad’s 2013 agreement to stop using chemical weapons.

“And a political solution is going to have to happen, but we know that there’s not any sort of option where a political solution is going to happen with Assad at the head of the regime”, Nikki Haley told CNN’s State of the Union program, in an interview to be broadcast later Sunday.

Russian Federation on Sunday said the cancellation of British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson’s visit to Moscow demonstrates London’s lack of understanding of knowledge of events in Syria.

Erdogan held a television interview that was reported by Anadolu Agency and dismissed the Syrian government’s story that the chemicals came from a depot of a terrorist organization.

So Trump’s decision to launch the strikes – an action President Barack Obama declined to take after a 2013 chemical attack – has raised optimism among rebels that Trump will more directly confront Assad. Trump said he retaliated because Bashar al-Assad “choked out the lives of helpless men, women and children” with banned chemical weapons. “And so we would want to appeal rationally to Russia”, McCaster said on “Fox News Sunday”.

Russian President Vladimir Putin and Iran’s Hassan Rouhani said in a phone call that aggressive USA actions against Syria were not permissible and violated global law, the Kremlin said.

Most U.S. allies have rallied around Washington in the aftermath of the suspected chemical-weapons attack and subsequent U.S. missile strike.

Tillerson said he would bring up the issue when he meets with his Russian counterpart this week for what is sure to be a less-than-comfortable sit-down.

British Defence Secretary Michael Fallon on Sunday accused Russian Federation of being “responsible” by proxy for the death of 87 civilians, including many children, killed last week in a suspected chemical weapons attack.

Hassan Rouhani and Vladimir Putin, the Iranian and Russian presidents, said on Sunday that USA airstrike against Syria was an act of invasion which ran contrary to worldwide law and the United Nations charter.

“Our priority is first the defeat of ISIS”, Tillerson said.