(CBS News/AP) – Russia, Syrian President Bashar Assad’s most important backer on the world stage, condemned early Friday a U.S. missile strike on a Syrian airbase as “an aggression against a sovereign state in violation of international law.”
Russian President Vladimir Putin’s spokesman Dmitry Peskov said in a statement that Putin believes President Trump ordered the strikes under a “far-fetched pretext.”
President Trump gave the command on Thursday for U.S. warships to fire a salvo of 59 Tomahawk cruise missiles at the Shayrat airfield in Homs province.
American military officials say a Syrian jet, flying from Shayrat, carried out the Tuesday morning chemical weapons attack on the rebel-held town of Khan Sheikhoun. That attack left more than 70 people dead, including many children, and involved the deadly nerve agent Sarin gas, according to autopsies carried out in Turkey.
Syria’s army on Friday decried the U.S. strike as “an outrageous aggression.” CBS News correspondent Jonathan Vigliotti says Syrian officials described the strike, however, as “limited and expected.” They were unconfirmed reports that some Syrian aircraft were removed from the Shayrat site ahead of hte U.S. strike. The damage to the airstrips, munitions and command and control infrastructure at the base, however, was said to be significant.
Syrian dictator Bashar Assad has denied carrying out the chemical attack on Tuesday, saying any chemical agents released were from a rebel stockpile hit in conventional strikes carried out by Syrian warplanes. Russia backed up that explanation, and continued Friday to argue that rebel chemical weapons capabilities were being ignored.
CBS News’ Holly Williams reports that several rebel groups have expressed relief — hoping the U.S. missile salvo will reduce the ferocity of Syrian and Russian strikes against them on the ground — but they’re not optimistic the U.S. government will offer more robust, direct support to them in the fight against Assad.
Experts refute the claim that a conventional strike would have dispersed chemical weapons, saying such a strike would instead have destroy the toxic chemical agents. In addition, chemical weapons experts say a conventional strike on a chemical stockpile wouldn’t have produced the harrowing scenes that have been broadcast around the world: People with no visible wounds, foaming at the mouth and suffocating to death.
Mr. Trump said he authorized the airstrike because “it is in the vital, national security interest of the United States to prevent and deter the use of deadly chemical weapons.”
Syria’s military said Friday that six soldiers were killed and several more wounded in the strike, and it declared the U.S. a “partner with ISIS, Nusra, and other terrorist groups” for launching an attack against Syrian forces. In a video statement, a Syrian commander said his forces would respond to the attack by continuing to “fight terrorism” wherever it exists.
How Russia and other nations in the region and around the world react to Mr. Trump’s first major foreign military intervention as president — and the first ever U.S. attack directly against the Assad regime — will bear much more significance in the coming days than what the Syrians say.
Here is a snapshot of the reaction from key U.S. allies and adversaries.
Russia:
“The actions taken today by the U.S.A. further destroy Russian-American relations,” Russia’s Foreign Ministry said Friday morning.
The message comes just days before U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson is due to visit Moscow, where the Syria war will be just one of the areas of friction between the two countries. On Thursday, Tillerson said, “either Russia has been complicit or Russia has been incompetent” in allowing the Syrian regime to carry out the chemical attack.
“The U.S. opted for a show of force, for military action against a country fighting international terrorism without taking the trouble to get the facts straight,” the Foreign Ministry said in a statement.
On a practical level — and one that will inevitably increase the risk of U.S. and Russian aircraft coming into potentially dangerous contact in Syrian airspace — Moscow announced Friday that it was suspending participation in a so-called “de-confliction” phone line set up between U.S. and Russian commanders.
The communications channel has operated by the U.S. military at an airbase in Qatar. It served as a real-time link to try and avoid collisions or accidental attacks involving U.S. and Russian aircraft in the increasingly-crowded Syrian sky. The system was used prior to the U.S. strike on the Shayrat airbase near Homs early Friday to “minimize risk to Russian or Syrian personnel located at the airfield.”
It wasn’t clear exactly how or when Russian commanders were notified of the impending cruise missile strike, but earlier Tillerson was adamant there had been no discussion with Russia ahead of the operation.
Russia called for an emergency meeting of the United Nations Security Council on Friday to discuss the U.S. strike.
Russia has blocked several proposed resolutions against the Assad regime in the Security Council in recent years, including one drawn up in the immediate aftermath of the Khan Sheikhoun chemical attack that would have condemned the Assad regime for it.
President Putin came to Assad’s rescue in late 2015 when it appeared rebel forces were gaining an advantage on the ground against Syrian troops. In the year and a half since, Russian-backed Syrian forces have turned the tide, squeezing rebel groups that have lamented a lack of international support.
Iran:
Iran, Assad’s only other major foreign backer, also condemned the U.S. strike on Shayrat, saying the “unilateral action is dangerous, destructive and violates the principles of international law.”
Iran is one of the biggest supporters of Assad. Its hard-line paramilitary Revolutionary Guard is deeply involved in the war, as is the Iranian-backed Shiite Muslim militia Hezbollah. America’s Sunni Arab allies in the Gulf view Syria as a proxy conflict between it and Shiite power Iran.
Foreign Ministry spokesman Bahram Ghasemi described Iran as “the biggest victim of chemical weapons in recent history,” referencing Iraqi use of the weapons during its 1980s war with the Islamic Republic. He said Iran condemned the missile launch “regardless of the perpetrators and the victims.”
The reaction from most other corners of the globe to the U.S. strike ranged from guarded caution, to praise.
Turkey:
Turkey’s foreign ministry welcomed the U.S. missile strike on Shayart air base following the chemical attack in Khan Sheikhoun as “very positive.”
In a written statement Friday, the ministry said steps to ensure that war crimes do not go unpunished and are held accountable “will have Turkey’s full support.”
Presidential spokesman Ibrahim Kalin also called the strike “an important step,” according to Turkey’s state-run Anadolu news agency. Kalin repeated Turkey’s calls for a no-fly zone and safe zone in Syria so that “similar massacres do not happen again.”
Turkey has been an invaluable but sometimes difficult U.S. ally in the campaign against ISIS in Syria and Iraq for years. While the U.S. and Turkey have never agreed on the reliance upon Kurdish militias to fight ISIS, both Washington and Ankara have supported rebel groups in the Syrian war, and both are foes of Assad.
Israel:
Israel’s president said the U.S. strike on Syria was an “appropriate response” to the “unthinkable brutality” of the chemical attacks in Syria this week.
On his official Twitter account, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu lauded Mr. Trump for ordering the attack, saying it sent “a strong and clear message” not just to Assad, but to other countries that Israel and the U.S. see as posing threats.
Reuven Rivlin said Friday the U.S. “serves as an example to the entire free world” to support steps to end atrocities in Syria.
Israeli Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman said President Trump sent a message that “war crimes” by President Assad will not be tolerated.
Israel has repeatedly warned against “game-changing” weapons reaching Hezbollah in Lebanon from Syria, which along with Iran supports the militant group. It has carried out a number of airstrikes on suspected weapon convoys en route to Hezbollah.
France and Germany:
The leaders of Germany and France said Syrian President Assad brought the American missile strikes upon himself by using chemical weapons.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Francois Hollande said in a joint statement Friday after talking on the phone that “President Assad alone carries responsibility for these developments” with his “repeated use of chemical weapons and his crimes against his own people.”
The two leaders said their countries would continue to work with United Nations partners in “efforts to hold President Assad responsible for his criminal acts.”
They called upon the international community to “join forces for a political transition in Syria” in accordance with the U.N. resolution.
Britain:
The British government says it was informed in advance about U.S. missile strikes on the Syrian airbase, and firmly supports the American action.
Prime Minister Theresa May’s office said the action was “an appropriate response to the barbaric chemical weapons attack launched by the Syrian regime, and is intended to deter further attacks.”
Defense Secretary Michael Fallon said British officials have “been in close contact with the American government over the last couple of days,” and that Defense Secretary James Mattis informed him late Thursday that the U.S. planned to take military action in response to the chemical attack in Syria.
Fallon said Britain, part of an international coalition against ISIS in Syria, had not been asked to participate in the action.
“The American defence secretary Jim Mattis consulted me early yesterday evening about our assessment of the regime’s culpability for the chemical weapons attack and we reviewed the need to understand and to deal with any likely Russian reactions to the attack,” Fallon told the BBC.
Italy:
Italy said the U.S. strike on the Shayrat airbase was “proportionate” given the “war crimes” committed by the Assad regime in using chemical weapons against its own people.
Italy said the U.S. strikes would serve as a deterrent for any possible future chemical attacks.
Premier Paolo Gentiloni said: “Against war crimes, for which the Bashar Assad regime is responsible, I believe the images of death and suffering that we have seen in recent days after the use of chemical weapons are images that we cannot accept seeing again.”
Italy urged Russia to use its influence with Damascus to enforce a cease-fire, and expressed hope that renewed U.S.-Russia talks could result in a U.N.-guided political transition in Syria. Italy is a close U.S. ally and has participated in U.S.-led military coalitions in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Australia:
Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull said Friday that the Australian government, “strongly supports the swift and just response of the United States,” to the chemical attack in Syria.
“This was a calibrated, proportionate and targeted response. It sends a strong message to the Assad regime, and as I said, has been struck at the very airfield from which the chemical attack was delivered,” Turnbull said, adding that while Australia wasn’t involved in the strike, his government was “fully committed as a coalition partner to our ongoing military operations in Iraq and Syria.”