Trump dithers over promised Syria strike with play on words
washington — President Donald Trump said on Thursday that an attack on Syria could take place “very soon or not so soon at all,” arguing he had never signalled the timing of retaliation for a suspected chemical weapons attack that he had suggested was imminent a day earlier.
The president made his latest statement in a tweet on Thursday morning. Trump on Wednesday had warned Russia to “get ready” for a missile attack on its ally Syria. But on Thursday, Trump tweeted: “Never said when an attack on Syria would take place.”
At a congressional hearing on the Pentagon’s 2019 budget request, Defence Secretary Jim Mattis declined to discuss military plans but said legislative leaders would be notified before any attack was undertaken. He said that because the US had no one at the site of the suspected chemical attack last Saturday, the US has no hard evidence of what happened. But he said he personally believes it was an “inexcusable” use of chemical weapons.
Asked about the risks of US military retaliation, Mattis cited two concerns, starting with avoiding civilian casualties. “On a strategic level, it’s how do we keep this from escalating out of control, if you get my drift on that,” he said.
At stake in Syria is the potential for confrontation, if not outright conflict, between the US and Russia, former Cold War foes whose relations have deteriorated in recent years over Moscow’s intervention in Ukraine, its interference in the 2016 US presidential election and, most recently, its support for Syrian President Bashar Al Assad. —
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 Donald Trump, US President
PARIS — France has proof the Syrian government carried out a chemical weapons attack last week and will decide whether to strike back when all the necessary information has been gathered, President Emmanuel Macron said on Thursday.
France is expected to join the United States and Britain in carrying out air strikes or some other form of attack in response to the use of the weapons but it remains unclear when that might happen or even if it definitely will.
“We have proof that last week, now 10 days ago, that chemical weapons were used, at least with chlorine, and that they were used by the regime of (President) Bashar Al Assad,” Macron said, without giving details on the evidence or how it was acquired.
The attack on the town of Douma on April 7 killed dozens of people, including children.
“Our teams have been working on this all week and we will need to take decisions in due course, when we judge it most useful and effective,” Macron told broadcaster TF1 when asked whether a red line had been crossed.
US President Donald Trump tweeted on Thursday morning: “Never said when an attack on Syria would take place. Could be very soon or not so soon at all!”
Macron said France wanted to remove the Syrian regime’s chemical weapons capabilities. When asked whether those would be the targets of strikes he said:
“When we decide it, and once we have verified all the information.”
The French army is preparing itself for a possible riposte as it waits for the political green light, military sources told Reuters, with several sources underscoring the difficulty of outlining the objectives of such an operation.
The sources said if France were to attack, the strikes would most likely come from warplanes rather than its naval frigate off the Lebanese coast, and that they would likely to take off from France rather than its Middle East bases.
The subject of chemical weapons’ use in Syria has been a thorny issue for Macron. —