Russia denounces US warning against Syria
Threats to Assad leadership ‘ unacceptable’
Russia denounced a US warning to the Syrian leadership that it will pay a heavy price for any chemical weapons attack, and dismissed White House assertions that a strike was being prepared as “unacceptable.”
The White House said on Monday the preparations in Syria were similar to actions before an April 4 chemical attack which killed dozens of civilians and prompted US President Donald Trump to order a missile strike on a Syrian air base.
But Russia, which is President Bashar al- Assad’s main backer, challenged the US intelligence.
“I am not aware of any information about a threat that chemical weapons can be used,” Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told a confer- ence call on Tuesday.
“Certainly, we consider such threats to the legitimate leadership of the Syrian Arab Republic unacceptable.”
Russian offi cials have privately described the war in Syria as the biggest source of tension between Moscow and Washington, and the cruise missile strike ordered by Trump in April raised the risk of confrontation between them.
White House offi cials did not respond to requests for comment on the intelligence that prompted Monday’s statement on Syria, or on possible US plans if Syria’s military conducted a chemical weapons attack.
“The US has identifi ed potential preparations for another chemical weapons attack by the Assad regime that would likely result in the mass murder of civilians, including innocent children,” White House spokesman Sean Spicer said.
“If Assad conducts another mass murder attack using chemical weapons, he and his military will pay a heavy price.”
The US missile strike on the Shayrat airfi eld in Syria in April followed the deaths of 87 people in what Washington said was a poison gas attack in rebel- held territory. Syria denied it carried out the attack.
Assad said in an interview with the AFP news agency earlier this year that the alleged April attack was “100 percent fabrication” used to justify a US air strike.