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Trump: 'big price to pay' for suspected Syria chemical weapons attack Trump: 'big price to pay' for Syria chemical weapons attack
(about 3 hours later)
Donald Trump said on Sunday there would be a “big price to pay” for an apparent chemical weapons attack on a rebel enclave in Syria. The president also said Russian president Vladimir Putin and Iran were responsible for backing Syrian president Bashar al-Assad, whose regime is believed to have carried out the strike. Donald Trump warned there will be a “big price to pay” for a chemical strike in a rebel-held Damascus suburb that killed at least 42 people on Saturday, as the UK and France called an urgent meeting of the United Nations security council in reaction to the the attack.
Using a phrase favoured by Trump, the Russian foreign ministry called reports of the attack “fake news”. The atrocity came amid a barrage by regime jets, helicopters and artillery on the district of Douma, which the European Union said pointed to “yet another chemical attack by the regime” as it called for an international response.
Rescue workers said at least 42 people were killed the besieged town of Douma near Damascus. Douma is in the rebel-held enclave of eastern Ghouta, which has previously been attacked with chlorine gas and sarin. At least 300 people were affected by the gas, medics in Douma said. Many of the 42 who died had been sheltering in the basement of a building that was struck by a projectile shortly after 7.30pm. Ill-equipped and overrun local doctors said they treated patients with symptoms of suffocation, foaming at the mouth, dilated pupils and burned eyes.
A year ago this weekend, Trump authorised the launch of Tomahawk missiles to hit an airfield in Syria, in response to a sarin attack on the village of Khan Sheikhun. An adviser to Trump said on Sunday he “wouldn’t take anything off the table” in terms of a response to the latest attack. Victims of the strike reported a strong odour of chlorine – an industrial chemical that has been dropped on opposition areas by regime helicopters throughout the war. However, Jerry Smith, a former UN weapons inspector who investigated previous chemical attacks in Syria, said the high death toll, the speed of death and convulsions shown by some patients suggested another more lethal compound – possibly organophosphate based – may have been used.
Pictures from Douma showed adults and children suffering from injuries which rescue workers said were consistent with the effects of exposure to an organophosphorus compound. Sarin is an organophosphate chemical that has been repeatedly used in Syria – including in a mass attack on the northern town of Khan Sheikhoun on 4 April 2017 and in a nearby area of Ghouta in August 2013. European intelligence agencies have gathered evidence that regime military officials have mixed sarin and chlorine, which dilutes the gas while ensuring it remains a potent killer – especially if delivered in confined spaces.
On Twitter, Trump wrote: “Many dead, including women and children, in mindless CHEMICAL attack in Syria. Area of atrocity is in lockdown and encircled by Syrian Army, making it completely inaccessible to outside world. President Putin, Russia and Iran are responsible for backing Animal Assad. Britain’s foreign secretary, Boris Johnson, described the developments as “deeply disturbing” and urged Russia not to impede an independent investigation. In a call with Vladimir Putin that took place before the attack, French leader Emmanuel Macron had agreed to “put an end to the military escalation of recent months”.
“Big price to pay. Open area immediately for medical help and verification. Another humanitarian disaster for no reason whatsoever. SICK!” Macron has flagged “very clear red lines” over the use of chemical weapons. In a statement, the French foreign minister, Jean-Yves Le Drian, said he “condemned in the strongest terms” the Syrian regime’s siege of Douma: “The use of chemical arms is a war crime and a violation of the international non-proliferation regime. France, as the president of the Republic has said several times, will take all its responsibilities in terms of the fight against chemical proliferation.”
A Syrian official source quoted by the Sana news agency said rebels had “fabricated” a strike. In a statement quoted by the news agency Tass, the Russian foreign ministry said reports of “the use of chlorine or other chemical agents by the government forces” were “fake news” and “fabricated information”. Trump demanded that access be opened to Douma, the last of three besieged districts in the Ghouta area of Damascus to remain under opposition control. Access was necessary to verify what had happened and treat remaining victims, he said, writing in a tweet: “President Putin, Russia and Iran are responsible for backing Animal Assad. Big price to pay. Open area immediately for medical help and verification.”
Trump also criticised his predecessor’s lack of action on the use of chemical weapons, writing: “If President Obama had crossed his stated Red Line In the Sand, the Syrian disaster would have ended long ago! Animal Assad would have been history!” His demand came a year to the day after he ordered a strike that saw 59 missiles crash into a Syrian air base thought to be the launching pad for the attack on Khan Sheikhoun. Trump had vowed to order another attack if chemicals were used again.
Trump recently said he wanted to withdraw US troops from Syria, where they have been aiding the fight against Islamic State militants. Pentagon opposition prompted him to partially back down. Mike Rounds of South Dakota, a member of the Senate armed services committee, signalled Republican support for a strike when he told NBC he thought Trump would now “have to send a message that he means what he said”.
Thomas Bossert, Trump’s homeland security adviser, appeared on ABC’s This Week on Sunday. Ben Cardin of Maryland, a Democrat on the Senate foreign relations committee, told CBS there should be “an international response”.
“We’ve seen the photos of that attack,” he said. “I think I would note, one thing that struck me is that this is the one-year anniversary of our action the last time they made the mistake of using these weapons and pushing the rest of the world. Rescue workers said they were attacked by jets as they tried to access the site in Douma. The bombing of the building where the civilians were hiding came amid a relentless assault local officials said targeted hospitals and civil defence centres.
“This is not just the United States, this is one of those issues on which every nation, all peoples have agreed and have agreed since world war two is an unacceptable practice.” It appeared to be aimed at forcing the surrender of remaining rebels who have periodically shelled central Damascus in recent months. One such shelling killed at least six civilians on Friday, Syrian officials said. Opposition officials and regional diplomats ascribed other motives to the use of gas, underpinned by a culture of impunity.
Asked if it was possible there would now be another missile attack, Bossert said: “I wouldn’t take anything off the table. “They do this when they think they’re being defied, when they’ve just suffered a humiliation on the battlefield, or when they feel they need to assert psychological dominance,” said a senior European official. “You can often feel the temperature rising before they do something like this. They think that the rest of the world is bluffing, and they know Russia and Iran will give them complete cover.”
“These are horrible photos, we’re looking into the attack at this point, the state department put out a statement last night and the president’s senior national security cabinet have been talking with him all throughout the evening and this morning and myself included.” The strike ordered by Trump after Khan Sheikhoun was largely symbolic, damaging runways and hangars that were quickly repaired Russia and Iran claimed the latest chemical attack was a “false flag”. Iran said it had been staged as a pretext for a US intervention. Syrian state media said rebels were in a state of collapse and spreading “fake” news.
State department spokeswoman Heather Nauert said on Saturday: “The Assad regime and its backers must be held accountable and any further attacks prevented immediately.” A ground attack on Douma has so far failed, frustrating Syrian officials who have blockaded the rebel bastion for six years. Negotiations between regime officials and Jeysh al-Islam, which controls Douma, are reported to have restarted.
On Sunday, Ben Cardin, a Democratic senator from Maryland who sits on the Senate foreign relations committee, told CBS’s Face the Nation there should be “an international response” to an attack that was “against international norms”. He did not call directly for US or international military action. Trump’s recent announcement that the US would pull out of Syria “very soon” has been widely read in the region as the president losing interest in maintaining an American stake in trying to shape the conflict. The US has largely confined its role since Trump’s election to fighting Islamic State in the east, stopping the small-scale military support to vetted groups that started under Barack Obama.
Among Republicans, Mike Rounds of South Dakota, a member of the Senate armed services committee, told NBC’s Meet the Press he thought Trump would now “have to send a message that he means what he said”. Both Trump and the US government offered little commentary as the other two districts of Ghouta fell to Russian and Syrian forces in March, during often indiscriminate bombardments that claimed at least 2,000 lives, many civilians. After being starved and bombed to submission, rebel groups and opposition communities from both areas have been bussed to Idlib province in northern Syria.
But even as Bossert said no response was off the table, the homeland security adviser also echoed Trump’s argument that US forces in Syria should be decreased. On Sunday, the Arizona Republican senator John McCain said Assad, Russia and Iran had been “emboldened by American inaction”.
“The pendulum has swung in the wrong direction for too long,” Bossert said, arguing that other countries should put “their resources and their treasure and their boys and girls on the line, and not just American troops”.
“American troops aren’t going to fix the six or seven different ongoing conflicts and wars in the Middle East or in Syria at this stage,” he said. “We need regional partnership increased and we need US presence decreased.”
SyriaSyria
Chemical weaponsChemical weapons
Middle East and North AfricaMiddle East and North Africa
Donald TrumpDonald Trump
Trump administrationTrump administration
US foreign policyUS foreign policy
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