Saudi Arabia fully supports US-led attack on bases
Saudi Arabia welcomed the US-led strikes on Syrian chemical weapons sites yesterday, while other countries called for a long-term political solution to the country’s war.
“Saudi Arabia fully supports the strikes launched by the US, France and Britain against Syria because they represent a response to the regime’s crimes,” the Foreign Ministry said in a statement carried by the Saudi Press Agency.
It said the strikes were prompted by the “Syrian regime’s use of chemical weapons against innocent civilians, including women and children”.
Bahrain said it fully supported the actions of its western allies after the brutal chemical attack that “claimed the lives of dozens of innocent people, including women and children”.
“This military operation was necessary to protect civilians on all Syrian territory and to prevent the use of any prohibited weapons that would increase the frequency of violence and the deterioration of humanitarian conditions,” the Foreign Ministry told the official Bahrain News Agency.
Saudi Arabia and other Gulf states have been key backers of Syrian opposition groups fighting the regime of President Bashar Al Assad.
French President Emmanuel Macron said Paris had proof that the Syrian regime used chemical weapons, a claim denied by the Damascus government.
But the Arab League Secretary General, Ahmed Aboul Gheit, said he felt regret and alarm over the missile strikes.
Speaking in the Saudi city of Dammam, where the 29th Arab League summit is being held today, Mr Aboul Gheit said that all parties involved in the crisis, primarily the Syrian government, were responsible for the deterioration of the situation.
The use of chemical weapons against civilians “shouldn’t be accepted or tolerated” but the issue required a sustainable political solution for the Syrian crisis, he said.
Jordan, a close US ally, did not refer directly to the missile strikes but said only a political solution would guarantee the stability of Syria.
“Continued violence will only lead to more violence, conflict, fighting and displacement whose victim is the Syrian people,” government spokesman Mohammad Al Momani said yesterday in a statement carried by the state news agency Petra.
Iraq said that the air strikes marked “a very dangerous development” and called for the Syria situation to be discussed at the Arab League summit on Sunday.
“Such action could have dangerous consequences, threatening the security and stability of the region and giving terrorism another opportunity to expand after it was ousted from Iraq and forced into Syria to retreat to a large extent,” the Foreign Ministry in Baghdad said.
Iraq’s position is in line with those of Russia and Iran, the main backers of Mr Al Assad in the civil war which has raged