US readying more sanctions against Syria

The United States will soon impose more sanctions on Syria in response to a chemical attack blamed on President Bashar al-Assad’s regime after an “overwhelming” successful military operation, the Trump administration officials said on Saturday.

“We will be announcing additional sanctions on Syria as part of our ongoing effort to stop this type of activity and emphasise how significant we view this,” Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin said from President Donald Trump’s golf resort in Mar-a-Lago, Florida.

“We expect that those will continue to have an important effect on preventing people from doing business with them,” Mnuchin said in response to a question.

The Treasury Department has very important functions in terms of sanctions and other financial intelligence functions, he said.

The US Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross said the missile strike took out 20 per cent of the Syrian air force.

“In terms of the strikes themselves, it’s my understanding that they took out something like 20 per cent of the entire Syrian air force. So it was huge not just in terms of number of planes but relative to the scale of their air force,” Ross said.

US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson claimed that the military operation launched on Friday was a success.

“It was an overwhelming success. I think the performance our military and the expertise and the power of what the US military is able to execute on a fairly short planning window was extraordinary,” Tillerson told reporters.

Tillerson also acknowledged that the missile strike could not damage the Syrian runways.

“The runways were not the target due to the nature of the construction of those runways. Our military estimate was that we could not do serious damage to the runways,” he said.

“They are very thick and they’re constructed in a way that the ordnance that were used, while the damage would have been easily repaired in a matter of hours. So the targeting was selected very deliberately to render the airbase essentially inoperable as an operating base, and that means taking out all the infrastructure, the fuelling capability, all the support infrastructure, hangars,” he said.

“So the fact that planes may be landing in and out of there, they’re not refuelling and they’re not able to certainly initiate any activity from that airfield today,” he
said.

-- IN PHOTOS: The 59-missile attack by US on Syria

US, Russia clash in Security Council over Syria missile strike

Meanwhile, the US and Russia clashed in the UN Security Council over the missile attack on a Syrian airfield, with Washington warning it is “prepared to do more” as Moscow accused it of flagrantly violating international law with its “act of aggression.”

The 15-nation Security Council met for an emergency meeting on Friday on the situation in Syria following the launch of 59 Tomahawk cruise missiles by US into the Shayrat Airbase as a response to the Syrian government’s use of chemical weapons from the base.

US Ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley, who is President of the Council for this month, said Washington was “fully justified” in carrying out the missile strikes and was prepared to take further action.

“Our military destroyed the airfield from which this week’s chemical strike took place. We were fully justified in doing so,” Haley said.

“The United States took a very measured step last night. We are prepared to do more, but we hope that will not be necessary. It is time for all civilised nations to stop the
horrors that are taking place in Syria and demand a political solution,” she said.

Haley said the US will no longer wait for Syrian President Bashar Al Assad to use chemical weapons without any consequences.

Haley also called out Russia, saying it, along with Iran, bears considerable responsibility for the crisis in Syria since “every time Assad has crossed the line of human decency, Russia has stood beside him.”

Russia tore into the US, calling the missile strikes on Syrian territory a “flagrant violation of international law and an act of aggression.

“We strongly condemn the illegitimate actions by the US. The consequences of this for regional and international stability could be extremely serious,” Russia’s deputy UN ambassador Vladimir Safronkov said.

A visibly agitated Safronkov said Washington, London and Paris have a “paranoiac idea” of overthrowing the legitimate government in sovereign Syria. In a particularly sharp attack against UK, Safronkov told Britain’s UN envoy Matthew Rycroft to “stop putting unprofessional accusations” against Russia.

“These (accusations) are not diplomatic. They are lies. Once again, I warn don’t even try to get into fights in the Arab world. Nothing will be achieved. That is why you are
getting annoyed. All Arab countries recall your colonial hypocrisy,” he said.

Safronkov called on the US to “immediately cease” its aggression and join efforts towards a political settlement in Syria.
Syria’s envoy Mounzer Mounzer said the air strike by the US against his country had been a “treacherous, barbaric, flagrant act of aggression” and a grave violation of
international law and the UN charter.

“The US attempted to justify its aggression with fabricated arguments that Syria had used chemical weapons in Khan Shaykhun -- the same justification advanced by terrorist groups and the countries supporting them,” he said.

He asserted that Syria does not have chemical weapons in the first place and would never use such weapons as it condemns the use of such weapons. He said it was well known that terrorists had stockpiled chemical agents in Syria, in cooperation with Turkey, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and other States outside the region.

“This aggression will surely send an erroneous message to the terrorist groups, emboldening them to use more chemical weapons in the future,” he warned.

Image: People participate in a demonstration against the recent US strike in Syria, in New York. Photograph: Stephanie Keith/Reuters