TRUMP: ALL OPTIONS OPEN AFTER DOUMA HIT

▶ US will decide in 48 hours as Israel is blamed for missile raid on Syria airbase

President Donald Trump said last night that he would decide within 48 hours on the US response to a chemical attack on a Syrian town, as tension increased with a missile strike on a regime airbase.

Mr Trump condemned the “atrocious” attack that killed 48 people and injured hundreds in Douma on Saturday.

“We’re talking about humanity and it can’t be allowed to happen,” he said before a cabinet meeting, reasserting the US red line against the use of chemical weapons.

Asked whether his government would take military action, Mr Trump said: “We’ll be making that decision very quickly. Probably by the end of today. We cannot allow atrocities like that.

“Nothing is off the table,” he said, echoing earlier comments by Defence Secretary James Mattis.

Mr Trump said those responsible would pay for it even if it was the Russian President Vladimir Putin, whose country, along with Iran, are the two major allies of the Syrian regime of Bashar Al Assad.

“Everybody’s gonna pay a price. He will and everybody will,” he said.

Mr Trump indicated that his generals were already assessing the evidence to determine who was responsible.

“So if it’s Russia, if it’s Syria, if it’s Iran, if it’s all of them together, we’ll figure it out and we’ll know the answers quite soon,” he said.

US officials told Reuters that the initial findings suggested a nerve agent was used in Douma, but further evidence was needed to establish the type of agent and who was responsible.

Mr Trump had authorised missile strikes on a Syrian airbase in April last year in response to a sarin gas attack on the town of Khan Sheikhoun, which killed almost 80 people.

The US was suspected of carrying out another missile strike on the Tayfur airbase in Homs yesterday before Russia and Syria said Israel was responsible.

Israel did not comment on the attack, which killed least 14 people including Iranians, but US officials told NBC News that Israel had notified Washington of the attack beforehand.

As the generals assessed targets in case Mr Trump decides to take action military again, Mr Mattis pointed fingers at Russia.

“The first thing we have to look at is why chemical weapons are still being used at all when Russia was the framework guarantor of removing all chemical weapons, and so working with our allies and partners from Nato to Qatar and elsewhere we are going to address this issue,” he said.

Russia yesterday said that its investigation had found no evidence that chemical weapons were used in Douma and warned against a hasty reaction.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said their experts had visited the site of the attack and “did not find any trace of chlorine or any other chemical substance used against civilians”.

“It’s necessary to examine very carefully what happened in Douma,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said. “Without this information, making any deductions is wrong and dangerous.”

The White House scheduled two meetings on Syria yesterday, the first a meeting of national security chiefs to assess the findings and options available to Washington, chaired by Mr Trump’s new National Security Adviser, John Bolton.

A later meeting was to be held with the president to present their findings and recommendations.

Charles Lister, senior fellow

and director of extremism and counter-terrorism at the Middle East Institute, said the White House meetings would review a range of options in Syria, including military.

“The White House principals’ meeting is to be presented with a broad array of possible strike options, most likely those related to critical Syrian military infrastructure, facilities linked to the use of air, ground and missile bombardment and the construction of munitions, and possibly also facilities suspected to be linked to the regime’s renewed chemical weapons research programme,” he said.

Mr Bolton’s attendance will bring “a hard stance on Damascus, but he’ll have to balance a hesitancy within US Central Command”, Mr Lister said.

Central Command’s hesitancy is driven by fears that US military strikes against Mr Al Assad could endanger about 2,000 US troops in north-east Syria.

At the UN, US Ambassador Nikki Haley took part in an emergency meeting of the Security Council overnight, where the US was circulating a draft resolution calling for an independent inquiry into the chemical weapons attacks in Syria.

The Trump government was also co-ordinating with its European and regional partners to plan a response.

Mr Trump called French President Emmanuel Macron and “they agreed to exchange information on the nature of the attacks and coordinate a strong, joint response”, the White House said.

Mr Mattis and the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen Joseph Dunford, were due to submit their military options to Mr Trump overnight.

Mr Trump and French President Emmanuel Macron agreed to coordinate a strong, joint response