TENSIONS SOAR IN SYRIA AMID THREATS BY U.S.

Beirut — The prospect of a U.S. strike on Syria in retaliation for an alleged chemical attack, coupled with a missile raid apparently carried out by Israel that killed Iranian military personnel, has underscored the risk that the conflict is on the brink of a dangerous escalation.

Syria and Russia accused Israel of carrying out the strike against a Syrian base where Iranians were stationed. More than ever, Syria is in danger of becoming an arena for the settling of scores among world powers.

Analysts questioned whether U.S. strikes would influence the course of events on the battlefield and stem the seeming inevitability of a Syrian government victory over its opponents.

Beirut — A suspected poison gas attack in a Syrian rebel-held town and airstrikes on a Syrian air base that Damascus and Moscow blamed on U.S. ally Israel escalated tensions in the already volatile Mideast on Monday and raised the threat of possibly imminent American retaliation.

The timing of the airstrikes in central Homs province, hours after President Donald Trump said there would be “a big price to pay” for the chemical weapons attack, raised questions about whether Israel was acting alone or as a proxy for the United States. The strike on the air base reportedly killed 14 people, including four Iranians.

The U.N. special envoy for Syria, Staffan de Mistura, in his most dire warning since taking the job four years ago, warned the U.N. Security Council that recent grave events have drawn national, regional and international actors “into dangerous situations of potential or actual confrontation.”

Israel did not comment on Monday’s missile strike. The Jewish State typically does not comment on its airstrikes in Syria, which have been numerous in Syria’s civil war.

The fast-paced developments threatened to further hike tensions between the U.S. and Russia, which has in the past warned against any U.S. military action against President Bashar Assad’s government. Iran, a key ally of Assad, condemned the airstrikes, which it said killed four Iranians, including a colonel and a member of the Revolutionary Guard’s aerospace force.

Opposition activists said 40 people died in Saturday night’s chemical attack in the town of Douma, the last remaining rebel bastion in the eastern suburbs of Damascus, blaming Assad’s forces. The attack killed entire families in their homes and underground shelters, opposition activists and local rescuers said.

The Syrian government strongly denied it carried out a chemical weapons attack and the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons said it has opened an investigation. In a statement, it said a fact-finding mission was gathering information from all available sources to establish whether chemical weapons were used.

Russia’s U.N. ambassador, Vassily Nebenzia, urged inspectors from the watchdog agency to fly to Syria’s capital today and visit the site in a nearby rebel-held town. He denied any attack occurred, telling the Security Council that experts from Russia’s military radiological, biological and chemical unit went to the site and found no chemical substances on the ground, no dead, and no poisoned people in hospitals.

Trump on Monday condemned the “heinous attack” in Syria and said later at a Cabinet meeting that he would “forcefully” respond. “Nothing is off the table,” Trump warned.

He said that after conferring with his military advisers, he would soon decide on how to respond, and against whom. “If it’s Russia, if it’s Syria, if it’s Iran, if it’s all of them together, we’ll figure it out,” Trump said. Referring to Russian President Vladimir Putin, he added: “Everybody’s going to pay a price — he will, everybody will.”

Nebenzia called a U.S. military option “very, very dangerous,” not only for Syria itself but for the world.

British Prime Minister Theresa May said Assad’s government and its backers, including Russia, “must be held to account” if it is found to have been responsible for the suspected poison gas attack. “Yes, this is about the actions, the brutal actions by Assad and his regime. But it also is about the backers of the regime, and of course Russia is one of those backers . ... And they need to look very carefully at the position they have taken,” she said.

The European Union also laid the blame squarely on Assad’s government.

The Security Council held an emergency meeting to discuss the chemical attack and the council president said experts were working on a resolution on the continuing use of chemical weapons in Syria, but sharp differences remain between Russia and the U.S. and its allies.

The airstrike was the second this year on the Syrian air base, known as T4, where Iranian fighters are believed to be stationed. Israel hit the base in February, after it said an Iranian drone that violated Israeli airspace took off from it.

Russia’s Defense Ministry said two Israeli aircraft targeted the base Monday, firing eight missiles. It said Syria shot down five of them while the other three landed in the western part of the base. Syrian state TV quoted an unnamed military official as saying that Israeli F-15 warplanes fired several missiles at T4. It gave no further details.

Israel’s Foreign Ministry had no comment when asked about reports of the airstrikes.

Amos Yadlin, a former Israeli fighter pilot and ex-head of Israeli military intelligence, stopped short of saying Israel was responsible for the airstrike. But he suggested that the chemical attack had crossed a red line and prompted Israel to take action to send a message to Syria and arch-enemy Iran.

“The Iranians are determined to base themselves in Syria,” he told the Army Radio station. “Israel is determined not to let them do that. And there is a strategic collision that perhaps tonight may have come together because of the chemical issue.”