US attacks Syria airbase

Manama : Bahrain yesterday said it fully supports the military operation conducted by the United States of America in retaliation for a suspected chemical weapons attack on a rebel-held town in Syria. 

“Bahrain stands resolutely with the United States in this fight wherever it takes place,” the statement by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said yesterday, praising the ‘determination and strong will of Trump to defeat terrorism in all forms. The statement affirmed that such a step was needed to stop the bloodshed and prevent the proliferation or use of any banned weapons against innocent civilians.

US President Donald Trump said the strike on the Shayrat airbase with 59 Tomahawk missiles fired from warships in the eastern Mediterranean, was in retaliation for what he said was a “barbaric” chemical attack on a rebel-held town in northwestern Syria by the Damascus regime.

Supporting the move, the Foreign Ministry statement called on all sides to work seriously and transparently to put an end to the sufferings of the Syrian people. 

The statement further affirmed the need for concerted efforts to maintain ceasefire and negotiations that will lead to a comprehensive political settlement on the basis of the Geneva 1 conference of 2012 and the relevant United Nations Security Council resolutions. The US move was also supported by GCC neighbours including Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and the UAE. 

Saudi Arabia said it “fully backs” the strike on Syrian government airbase. 

“Saudi Arabia fully supports the US military operations against military targets in Syria, which were a response to the regime’s use of chemical weapons against innocent civilians,” a foreign ministry official told the state SPA news agency. The official said the regime had only itself to blame after “odious crimes it had committed for years against the Syrian people.”

He described US President Donald Trump as “courageous” for taking action when “the international community has failed to put a halt to the regime’s actions.”

Kuwait Foreign Ministry in its statement to Kuna said, “The State of Kuwait, while affirming its emphatic rejection and robust condemnation of using various weapons of mass destruction, expresses its support for the military operations carried out by the United states of America.” UAE also took an identical stance. 

In Abu Dhabi, the state-run new agency WAM, quoting Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Dr. Anwar Qarqash, lauded Trump “for taking this courageous and sagacious decision which will bolster Americas’s status. Qatar Foreign Ministry said in a statement that it backed the strike on Syrian regime airbase, condemning it for “continuing ugly crimes against people”. 

Egypt, however, called on the US and Russia to take effective action to “contain the strife and reach a comprehensive and final settlement on the Syrian crisis”.  There had been international outrage over Tuesday’s suspected attack that killed dozens of civilians but Moscow stood by its Damascus ally and warned of the negative consequences of any military action

As a result, a UN Security Council debate on a Western-drafted resolution that would have sanctioned the Syrian regime was again delayed on Thursday amid Russian insistence that the chemical weapons that caused the deaths had been stockpiled by jihadists on the ground and released by a conventional strike.

The Syrian government said it would redouble its efforts against rebel groups after the US strike which it called “foolish and irresponsible”.

“What America did is nothing but foolish and irresponsible behaviour, which only reveals its short-sightedness and political and military blindness to reality,” President Bashar al-Assad’s office said in a statement. Russia, unsurprisingly, the main ally of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad was robust in its opposition to the strike.

Meanwhile, the Pentagon urged Russia to keep military channels open after Moscow abruptly hung up a vital hotline that was established to avoid mishaps between the two powers in Syria. The US action was supported by European Union, France, Germany, Britain and Turkey. Beijing offered a nuanced reaction, saying it was “urgent” to avoid “further deterioration of the situation.