The Courier & Advertiser (Fife Edition)
Prime Minister wins Cabinet green light to ‘deter’ attacks
Moves to oppose Assad after it is agreed he was ‘highly likely’ responsible for poison gas atrocity
Britain has moved a step closer to potential military action against Syrian President Bashar Assad after Theresa May won the backing of senior ministers for action to deter any further use of chemical weapons by the regime.
Following a two-hour emergency Cabinet meeting, Downing Street said ministers had agreed it was “highly likely” Assad was responsible for the attack on Saturday on the rebel-held town of Douma which reportedly left dozens dead.
In a statement issued following the meeting, it said there had been agreement around the cabinet table that such actions should not go “unchallenged” and that the UK would continue to work with the US and France to coordinate an international response.
The statement made no direct reference to military action, but will be seen as a signal Britain would be prepared to join any US-led air strikes against the regime should the Americans decide to go ahead – putting it on a potential collision course with Assad’s principal backer, Russia.
Earlier US President Donald Trump appeared to row back from a suggestion on Wednesday that missile strikes were imminent.
“Never said when an attack on Syria
would take place. Could be very soon or not so soon at all!” he wrote on the social media site.
Later President Trump emerged from a meeting with his national security team without a “final decision” on how to respond to a suspected chemical weapons attack in Syria.
White House spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders said Mr Trump held a meeting yesterday afternoon with his team to discuss the situation.
But she said “no final decision has been made”. She added that US officials are “continuing to assess intelligence” and are “engaged in conversations with our partners and allies”.
Mr Trump was due to speak with French President Emmanuel Macron and British Prime Minister Theresa May late last night.
At a congressional hearing in Washington, defence secretary General James Mattis also signalled caution, saying the president had not yet decided whether military force would be part of the US response in Syria.
He said that because the US had no personnel at the site of the suspected chemical attack on Saturday, it has no hard evidence of what happened, although he personally believed it was an “inexcusable” use of chemical weapons.
However the US broadcaster NBC later quoted US officials familiar with the intelligence as saying they had now obtained blood and urine samples which had tested positive for chemical weapons. The samples were said to have suggested the presence of both chlorine gas and an unnamed nerve agent, with the officials saying they were “confident” in the intelligence, although not 100% sure.