Clash at UN as tension over Syria escalates
❛ Air traffic control agency Eurocontrol warned airlines to exercise caution in the eastern Mediterranean due to the possible launch of air strikes into Syria in next 72 hours
UNITED NATIONS/BEIRUT: Russia and the United States yesterday tangled at the United Nations over the use of chemical weapons in Syria as Washington and its allies considered whether to strike at President Bashar alAssad’s forces over a suspected poison gas attack last weekend.
Moscow and Washington halted attempts by each other in the UN Security Council to set up international investigations into chemical weapons attacks in Syria, which is in the throes of a sevenyearold civil war.
US President Donald Trump and western allies are discussing possible military action to punish Assad for a suspected
poison gas attack on a rebelheld town that had long held out against government forces.
Trump yesterday cancelled a planned trip to Latin America later this week to focus instead on responding to the Syria incident, the White House said.
Trump had on Tuesday warned of a quick, forceful response once responsibility for the Syria attack was established.
PanEuropean air traffic control agency Eurocontrol warned
airlines to exercise caution in the eastern Mediterranean due to the possible launch of air strikes into Syria in the next 72 hours.
A team of international
inspectors yesterday accepted an invitation from Syria to examine the site of a suspected chemical attack on civilians in a rebelheld enclave outside Damascus.
Hoping to back its position, Syria said members of the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons would be allowed access to the site. The autonomous, intergovernmental group, which is based at The Hague, Netherlands, said it would dispatch a factfinding team to Syria ‘‘shortly.’’
A Russian warplane flew over a French warship at low altitude in the eastern Mediterranean this weekend, a deliberate breach of international regulations, a French naval source said on Tuesday.
The weekly magazine Le Point said the Russian plane had flown over the frigate Aquitaine and was fully armed. The Aquitaine is equipped with 16 cruise missiles and 16 surfacetoair missiles. It is currently operating off Lebanon.
France and Britain stressed the gas attack culprit needed to be confirmed. — Reuters