ONE TWEET FROM WAR?
Trump’s missile threat: ‘Get ready Russia they are coming nice and new and smart!’
DONALD Trump last night issued a chilling warning to Russia to “get ready” for an onslaught of cruise missiles on Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad’s blood-soaked regime.
Signalling that a US-led military attack is imminent, the president promised that the bombs “will be coming, nice and new and smart”.
He also mocked Vladimir Putin for his alliance with the “gas killing animal” Assad, who was alleged to “enjoy” slaughtering his own people.
President Trump’s extraordinary threat was delivered in two starklyworded messages on Twitter yesterday as the furious international row over the chemical weapon attack on Douma in Eastern Ghouta intensified dramatically.
His bellicose rhetoric suggested a blitz on the Assad regime was days if not hours away. And Theresa May gave the president her backing by insisting that continuing use of chemical weapons “cannot go unchallenged”.
In his message on Twitter Mr Trump wrote: “Russia vows to shoot down any and all missiles fired at Syria. Get ready Russia, because they will be coming, nice and new and ‘smart!’ You shouldn’t be partners with a gas killing animal who kills his people and enjoys it!”
His blast followed a Russian warning against Western military intervention in the Syrian civil war, with a pledge that any missiles launched would be shot down.
Russia’s ambassador to Lebanon Alexander Zasypkinhad warned that the federation’s military will shoot down US rockets and “even the sources that launched the missiles”.
In a later tweet the US President appealed to his Russian counterpart Mr Putin to “stop the arms race”.
Mr Trump said: “Our relationship with Russia is worse now than it has ever been and that includes the Cold War. There is no reason for this.
“Russia needs us to help with their economy, something that would be very easy to do, and we need all nations to work together. Stop the arms race?”
Soon after the tweets Russia’s Foreign Ministry said that “smart missiles should fly towards terrorists, not legal government”.
The ministry’s spokeswoman Maria Zakharova questioned whether the idea behind military action was to “use the smart missiles to sweep the traces of the provocation under the rug”.
And in a further sign of escalating tensions last night Russian military chiefs vowed to send troops to Douma over the coming days.
Lieutenant-General Viktor Poznikhir of the General Staff of the Russian armed forces said Russian military police will deploy to Douma today to allegedly protect the town.
He claimed 41,213 people, including 3,354 rebels and 8,642 members of their families have left Douma with Russia’s assistance.
President Trump’s defence chief last night insisted the Pentagon was still looking into last weekend’s suspected chemical weapons attack.
US Defense Secretary Jim Mattis said: “We’re still assessing the intelligence – ourselves and our allies. We’re still working on this.”
An emergency meeting of the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons is to be convened on Monday to discuss the attack.
Earlier this week the US Navy announced that a strike group headed by the aircraft carrier USS Harry S Truman was sailing for the region.
The Russian Defence Ministry said yesterday: “We are attentively tracking the situation unfolding around Syria and in the whole
‘Our relationship with Russia is worse now than it has ever been’
region. Instead of talking about the coalition’s readiness to fire missiles at Syria the United States would do better to rebuild the destroyed city (of Raqqa) and provide wide-ranging help to its suffering population.”
Douma was attacked late on Saturday in a resumed offensive by Syrian government forces after the collapse of a truce with the Army of Islam rebel group.
Syrian opposition activists and rescuers said poison gas was used on the rebel-held town near the capital, an allegation strongly denied by the Assad government.
Families were reportedly found suffocated in their homes and shelters, with foam on their mouths. Around 500 others, including children, were affected.
The attack comes almost a year after a chemical attack in the northern Syrian town of Khan Sheikhoun killed dozens of people.
That incident prompted the US to launch several dozen Tomahawk cruise missiles at a Syrian air base.