US Does Not Seems To Be Ready To Take Military Action In Syria
After heavy rhetoric by the United States and Russia over Syrian gas attack on civilians in Douma, US defence chief James Mattis has urged caution at home (Washington) which further weakens the chances of the US making any military action in the country to stop the chemical attacks.
On Thursday, during a public hearing, Mattis told members of Congress that the US is “not going to engage in the civil war itself”, and it remains committed to the United Nations-backed negotiations in Geneva to end the war.
“We are trying to stop the murder of innocent people. On a strategic level – is how do we keep this from escalating out of control,” he said.
“Our strategy remains the same as a year ago: To drive this to a UN-brokered peace. At the same time, we keep our foot on the neck of ISIS until we suffocate it,” he said referring to the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL, also known as ISIS) group.
On Wednesday, Trump had threatened to retaliate against the Russian-backed Syrian regime for supporting its gas attacks by posting on social media that “nice, new and ‘smart’” missiles “will be coming”.
But he later wrote quite the opposite to that by saying “there is no reason” for the antagonism between Washington, DC and Moscow, adding that “we need all nations to work together”.
On Thursday, Trump added a point on Twitter that he “never said when an attack on Syria would take place” but it “could be very soon or not so soon at all!”
Russia had previously responded the US warning by saying that it would respond to any US missiles fired in Syria by shooting them down and targeting their launch sites.
UN ambassador Vassily Nebenzia from Moscow said on Thursday that the “immediate priority is to avert the danger of war”.
He did not rule out any of the possibility of a US-Russia conflict, saying Moscow was very concerned with “the dangerous escalation” and “aggressive policies” that certain governments are making.
“We hope that there will be no point of return – that the US and their allies will refrain from military action against a sovereign state,” Nebenzia told reporters late on Thursday.
Russia has called for another emergency meeting of the United Nations Security Council on Friday.
The latest development in Washington is after the British media report that UK Prime Minister Theresa May’s cabinet agreed “on the need to take action” in Syria.
Along with them, France’s President Emmanuel Macron was quoted as saying that he has got “proof” that the Syrian government targeted civilians in Douma with chemical weapons last week.