Macron says he ‘convinced’ Trump to stay in Syria
FRANCE - French President Emmanuel Macron said last weekend that he “convinced” President Donald Trump to stay in Syria before the United States, United Kingdom and France launched strikes against targets at three sites Friday .
“Ten days ago, President Trump said the USA’s will is to disengage from Syria. We convinced him that it was necessary to stay,” Macron said, during a two-hour televised interview with several French media outlets. On Friday, the United States, France and the United Kingdom launched a series of strikes on a research laboratory and two storage facilities associated with Syria’s chemical weapons program. Satellite images of the facilities, located west of Homs and near the capital Damascus, before and after the strikes appear to show they suffered extensive damage. Macron said it had also been France which convinced Trump that the strikes had to be limited to suspected chemical weapons sites. Prior to the strikes, there had been reports Trump wanted to see tougher, more extended action in Syria but was talked down by his national security team. The strike has been furious condemned by Syrian ally Russia, who attempted to bring a motion in the United Nations Security Council on Saturday to denounce the “aggression against the Syrian Arab Republic by the US and its allies.”
In a phone call with Iranian President Hassan Rouhani on the weekend, Russian leader Vladimir Putin said any further strikes by the United States in Syria could lead to “chaos in international relations,” according to a statement from the Kremlin. Both Putin and Rouhani agreed the missiles strikes had “seriously damaged” the prospect for a political settlement in Syria, the statement said. During his interview, Macron said Putin was an “accomplice” to Syria’s alleged use of chemicals weapons. “They have not used chlorine themselves, but they have methodically contributed to the international community’s powerlessness to prevent the use of chemical weapons by diplomatic means,” he said. (CNN)