Assad allies see strikes as threat to negotiated fix
DAMASCUS, Syria — The leaders of Russia, Iran and the Hezbollah group in Lebanon said Sunday that Western air strikes on their ally, Syria, have complicated prospects for a political settlement to the country’s seven-year conflict.
A day after the U.S., Britain and France bombarded sites they said were linked to a chemical weapons program, Syrian President Bashar Assad appeared briefly on state TV, seemingly unfazed by the military action — and even reportedly in high spirits.
He told a group of visiting Russian lawmakers that the strikes were accompanied by a campaign of “lies and misinformation” against Syria and Russia in the U.N. Security Council.
Moscow and Damascus are waging the same “battles” against terrorism and “to protect international law based on respect of the sovereignty of countries and the wills of people,” Assad said in comments carried by state media.
Russian lawmaker Dmitry Sablin, who met with Assad, said he appeared upbeat and believed the air strikes would unify the country.
Russia and Iran have called the action a “military crime” and an “act of aggression.” The U.N. Security Council rejected a Russian resolution calling for condemnation of the “aggression” by the U.S., France and Britain.
Russian President Vladimir Putin spoke by phone with Iranian President Hassan Rouhani, and they agreed the Western air strikes were an “illegal action ... adversely impacting prospects for political settlement in Syria,” a Kremlin statement said.
The official IRNA news agency quoted Rouhani as saying The U.S. and “some Western countries do not want Syria to reach permanent stability.”
Assad denies he has used chemical weapons, and the U.S. has yet to present evidence of what it says led to the allied action: a chlorine gas attack on civilians in Douma on April 7 that killed more than 40 people. The U.S. says it suspects that sarin gas also was used.
U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley on Sunday said new sanctions would be announced Monday against Russia, which she said has blocked six attempts by the U.N. Security Council to make it easier to investigate the use of chemical weapons.
“Everyone is going to feel it at this point,” Haley said, warning of consequences for Assad’s foreign allies.
“The international community will not allow chemical weapons to come back into our everyday life,” she said. “The fact he was making this more normal and that Russia was covering this up, all that has got to stop.”
Haley appeared on Fox News and CBS.