Trump wavers on possible military move
MOSCOW/LONDON: Russian Deputy Prime Minister Arkady Dvorkovich said yesterday international relations should not depend on the mood of one person when he wakes up in the morning, in apparent reference to US President Donald Trump, RIA news agency reported.
In an earlymorning tweet this week, Trump warned that missiles ‘‘will be coming’’ in response to an alleged chemical weapons attack by Syrian government forces on civilians.
Russia is Syria’s most important military ally in the country’s civil war.
‘‘We cannot depend on the mood of someone on the other side of the ocean when he wakes up, on what a specific person takes into his head in the morning,’’ Dvorkovich said at a forum in Krasnoyarsk, according to the Tass news agency.
‘‘We cannot take such risks.’’ In a later tweet, Trump appeared to cast doubt on at least the timing of any USled military action.
‘‘Never said when an attack on Syria would take place. Could be very soon or not so soon at all!’’ it said.
The White House said yesterday he would consult further with allies while Defence Secretary Jim Mattis warned such an attack could spin out of control.
Mattis’s remark suggested caution ahead of a decision on how to respond to an attack that British officials said killed up to 75 people.
Meanwhile, British Prime Minister Theresa May has won backing from her senior ministers to take unspecified action with the US and France to deter further use of chemical weapons by Syria.
Russia has warned the West against attacking its Syrian ally President Bashar alAssad, who is also supported by Iran, and says there is no evidence of a chemical attack in Douma, a town near Damascus which had been rebelheld until this month.
May has said ‘‘all indications’’ point to Syrian responsibility for the attack. She told her senior ministers yesterday the Douma events showed a ‘‘deeply concerning’’ erosion of international legal norms barring the use of chemical weapons.
‘‘Cabinet agreed on the need to take action to alleviate humani
tarian distress and to deter the further use of chemical weapons by the Assad regime,’’ a spokeswoman for the prime minister said after the meeting.
Ministers agreed May should continue to work with the US and France to come up with the right response. There was no specific reference to military action.
Later, May’s office said she had spoken with Trump by telephone, and the two had agreed it was vital to challenge Assad’s use of chemical weapons, and they would work together to do so.
Opposition Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn, a veteran antiwar campaigner, said Britain should press for a United Nationsled investigation rather than follow the lead of the US.
May has said Russia’s veto at the Security Council of a vote to create a new inquiry on chemical attacks meant the UN could have no role in investigations.
‘‘The Government appears to be waiting for instructions from President Donald Trump on how to proceed,’’ Corbyn said in a statement.
‘‘Britain should press for an independent UNled investigation of last weekend’s horrific chemical weapons attack so that those responsible can be held to account.’’
A YouGov poll showed just one in five members of the public supports a strike on Syria.
The BBC said May was ready to give the goahead for Britain to take part in action led by the US without seeking prior approval from parliament, and the Finan
cial Times said the Cabinet had agreed to this.
The Downing Street statement did not mention parliament, and a spokeswoman did not comment on those reports.
May is not obliged to win parliament’s approval, but a nonbinding constitutional convention to do so has been established since a 2003 vote on joining the USled invasion of Iraq. — Reuters