Moscow awaits ‘explanations’ for US Syria strike

Russia said Friday it expected “explanations” for the US air strike on a Syrian airbase, which Moscow furiously condemned, when US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson visits next week.

“The visit is on the agenda,” foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova told NTV television. “Let him come and explain to us what they did today. We will tell him what we think about it.”

“We await his explanations,” Zakharova added, saying Russian diplomats had been in contact with their American counterparts on Friday about the air strike and Tillerson’s visit.

Tillerson was due to make his first official visit to the country on April 11 and 12, where discussions with Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov will notably centre on the fight against terrorism and Syria.

Zakharova said the massive US strike, launched in the early morning in retaliation for a chemical attack the White House blamed on President Bashar al-Assad’s government, was an act “without goal, foolish and dangerous”.

The strike — US President Donald Trump’s biggest military decision since taking office — followed days of outrage prompted by images of dead children and victims suffering convulsions from the suspected sarin gas attack in the rebel-held town of Khan Sheikhun.

Syria’s regime has denied using chemical weapons in Khan Sheikhun, where at least 86 people, including 30 children, were reported killed and more than 500 wounded.

Damascus called the US strike “foolish and irresponsible”.

The Kremlin said the US strike was a “gross… violation of international law” and warned it would inflict “considerable damage” on US-Russia ties.

The country, which also demanded an emergency meeting of the UN Security Council, immediately suspended a deal with the United States aimed at avoiding clashes in Syrian airspace.

The foreign ministry announced late Friday it had summoned the US military envoy to Moscow to officially hand him the notice of the accord’s suspension, a deal struck in October 2015 as a US-led coalition intensified air strikes against the Islamic State group.

The Russian military also announced measures “to strengthen and improve the effectiveness of the Syrian armed forces’ air defence system”.

During a phone conversation with Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu, Lavrov said the US “act of aggression” against Syria “could only impede” peace efforts there.

Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Israel, Japan, Saudi Arabia and Turkey all supported Washington, with Ankara also calling for a no-fly zone in Syria.

Russia stood by Damascus despite the global uproar, insisting the chemical weapons that caused the deaths had been stockpiled by “terrorists” and possibly released by a conventional strike.