WASHINGTON/LONDON/MOSCOW: US President Donald Trump said he was holding meetings on Thursday on Syria where he has threatened missile strikes in response to a suspected poison gas attack and he expected decisions to be taken “fairly soon.”
Fears of confrontation between Russia, Syria’s big ally, and the West have been running high since Trump said on Wednesday that missiles “will be coming” after the attack in the Syrian town of Douma on April 7, and lambasted Moscow for standing by Syrian President Bashar al Assad.
“Never said when an attack on Syria would take place. Could be very soon or not so soon at all!” Trump said in an early morning tweet on Thursday.
Later on Thursday, he said: “We’re having a number of meetings today, we’ll see what happens. Now we have to make some... decisions, so they’ll be made fairly soon.”
Earlier, French President Emmanuel Macron said France had proof the Syrian government carried out the attack, which aid groups have said killed dozens of people, and will decide whether to strike back when all the necessary information has been gathered.
“We have proof that last week... chemical weapons were used, at least with chlorine, and that they were used by the regime of (President) Bashar al Assad,” Macron said, without offering details of any evidence.
“We will need to take decisions in due course, when we judge it most useful and effective,” he told broadcaster TF1.
British Prime Minister Theresa May meanwhile held a special cabinet meeting to weigh
whether Britain should join the United States and France in possible military action.
She has cast the attack in Douma, then rebel-held, just east of the capital Damascus, as barbaric.
— Reuters
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