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U.S. President Donald Trump put off making a final decision on strikes against Syria following a crunch meeting with national security advisers on Thursday, as Moscow warned against any US move that could trigger a conflict between the nuclear-armed rivals.
US President Donald Trump was presented Thursday with options for a retaliatory strike against Syria
Minutes after Pentagon brass and cabinet members jumped in black armored SUVs and sped away from the White House, Press Secretary Sarah Sanders said Trump would continue to assess intelligence and engage with allies.
Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Joseph Dunford and US Secretary of Defense James Mattis leave the White House after a meeting with US President Donald Trump about Syria in Washington, US, April 12, 2018.
"No final decision has been made," she said, adding that Trump would confer later in the day with French President Emmanuel Macron and British Prime Minister Theresa May.
Later, a Downing Street spokesperson confirmed that Trump and May had agreed during a phone call to "keep working closely together on the international response" over Syria.
"They agreed it was vital that the use of chemical weapons did not go unchallenged, and on the need to deter the further use of chemical weapons by the Assad," the spokesperson added.
Potential targets in Syria/Photo from AFP
Worries about a confrontation between Russia, and the West have been running high since Trump said on Wednesday that missiles “will be coming” in response to the attack in the Syrian town of Douma on April 7, and lambasted Moscow for standing by Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.
US President Donald Trump, center, listens during a meeting with senior military leadership in the Cabinet Room of the White House in Washington, DC, US, April 9, 2018.
Trump tempered those remarks on Thursday.
"Never said when an attack on Syria would take place. Could be very soon or not so soon at all!" Trump wrote on Twitter.
France announced that they had proof the Syrian government carried out the attack near Damascus, which aid groups have said killed dozens of people, and will decide whether to strike back when all the necessary information has been gathered.
“We have proof that last week ... chemical weapons were used, at least with chlorine, and that they were used by Bashar al-Assad,” Macron said, without offering details of any evidence.
Two US officials familiar with an investigation of samples from Douma and the symptoms of victims said initial indications that a mix of weaponized chlorine gas and sarin were used in the attack appeared to be correct. But US intelligence agencies have not completed their assessment or reached a final conclusion, the officials said.
(AFP&REUTERS&CGTN)
