Russian Federation demands UN Security Council condemn Syria missile attack

Addressing the council, Guterres urged all countries to uphold worldwide law and warned that “Syria today represents the most serious threat to global peace and security”.

In the alleged attack over the weekend in Douma, a rebel-held area in the Damascus suburbs, pro-opposition rescue workers and doctors have told NPR’s Ruth Sherlock that at least 42 people died.

On Monday, the United Nations said the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, or OPCW, is investigating Saturday’s alleged attack.

Erdogan was quoted as saying: “We will determine the time”.

Meanwhile, Russia’s Defense Ministry confirmed that the US -led airstrikes had avoided hitting Russian bases in the Syrian cities of Tartus and Hmeimim and that Russian air defenses had not been deployed.

He called the actions taken by the US, UK and France in response to a suspected use of chemical weapons by the Assad regime were an “act of aggression”.

The U.S. has disputed those claims, with a State Department official telling ABC News that victims’ symptoms, “reported by credible medical professionals and visible in social media photos and video, are consistent with an asphyxiation agent and of a nerve agent of some type”. Others said they have readied underground basements for cover. Mr. Trump’s “threats to repeat impulsive acts of aggression is symptomatic of US policy helping extremists”, Mr. Zarif said.

The Syrian pound lost almost 10 percent of its value on prospects of an American attack, going from about 430 Syrian pounds to the dollar last week to 469 Wednesday.

The first Russian resolution also called for the creation of the independent investigation mechanism, but would have required it to take into account the OPCW data as well as information provided by the Syrian government on the rebel organisations, which met with Western objections.

There was no immediate comment from Syrian officials.

As the envoy said, “those in the West who are exploiting humanitarian rhetoric and trying to justify their military presence in Syria by the needs to crush jihadists are actually aligning themselves with them and seeking to dismember the country”.

He warned that “any Russia-U.S. military clash will expand beyond a local conflict and a confrontation will be inevitable”.

Both Trump and his defense secretary Jim Mattis abruptly cancelled upcoming travel plans Tuesday, as the USS Donald Cook – a guided-missile destroyer – moved to within striking range of Syria.

The report prompted the United States and up to eight other nations – Ivory Coast, France, Kuwait, the Netherlands, Peru, Poland, Sweden, and the United Kingdom – to seek the emergency session.

“We’re still assessing the intelligence, ourselves and our allies”, Mattis said.

There have been 10 chemical attacks recorded by activists and doctors in Syria this year, including the alleged incident in Douma Saturday, according to the Syrian American Medical Society.

The latest veto prevented the adoption of US-drafted resolution to investigate chemical weapons use in Syria aimed at identifying the perpetrators.

Mr Trump’s tweet was reacting to a warning from Russian Federation that any United States missiles fired at Syria over the deadly assault on the rebel enclave of Douma near Damascus would be shot down and the launch sites targeted.

“Let that also be a response to planned military interventions”. Trump responded then by launching dozens of Navy cruise missiles at a Syrian airfield.