Trump says Syria attack ‘very soon or not so soon at all!’

Washington : President Donald Trump said yesterday that an attack on Syria could take place “very soon or not so soon at all,” arguing he had never signalled the timing of retaliation for a suspected chemical weapons attack that he had suggested was imminent a day earlier.

On Capitol Hill, Democrats grilled Defense Secretary Jim Mattis on the legality and constitutionality of Trump ordering an attack on Syria without explicit authorization from Congress. Mattis insisted it would be justified as an act of self-defence; he insisted he could not talk about military plans because an attack “is not yet in the offing.”

Mattis said the president’s National Security Council would be meeting later yesterday to “take forward the various options” for Trump. He said the president has not yet decided whether military force would be part of a U.S. response in Syria.

Trump made his latest statement in a tweet yesterday morning. Trump on Wednesday had warned Russia to “get ready” for a missile attack on its ally Syria. But yesterday, Trump tweeted: “Never said when an attack on Syria would take place.”

At a House Armed Services Committee hearing on the Pentagon’s 2019 budget request, Mattis said that because the U.S. had no one at the site of the suspected chemical attack in Syria last Saturday, the U.S. has no hard evidence of what happened. But he said he personally believes it was an “inexcusable” use of chemical weapons.

Asked about the risks of U.S. military retaliation, Mattis cited two concerns, starting with avoiding civilian casualties.

“On a strategic level, it’s how do we keep this from escalating out of control, if you get my drift on that,” he said.

At stake in Syria is the potential for confrontation, if not outright conflict, between the U.S. and Russia, former Cold War foes whose relations have deteriorated in recent years over Moscow’s intervention in Ukraine, its interference in the 2016 U.S. presidential election and, most recently, its support for Syrian President Bashar Assad.

Russian lawmakers have warned the United States that Moscow would view an airstrike on Syria as a war crime and that it could trigger a direct U.S-Russian military clash. Russia’s ambassador to Lebanon said any missiles fired at Syria would be shot down and the launching sites targeted — a stark warning of a potential major confrontation.

At the House hearing, Rep. Tulsi Gabbard, a Democrat of Hawaii, disputed Trump’s legal authority to act without congressional authority and suggested that a U.S. strike would lead to war with Russia.

“I’m not ready to speculate that that would happen,” Mattis said, referring to the prospect of open conflict with Russia.