Russian President Vladimir Putin’s administration said Friday that the US cruise missile attack on a Syrian airbase was an act of “aggression,” and denied that Bashar al-Assad deployed chemical weapons against his own citizens.

“President Putin regards the American attacks on Syria as aggression against a sovereign state in violation of the norms of international law, and under a far-fetched pretext,” said Kremlin press secretary Dmitry Peskov.

Peskov claimed that the Syrian government did not even possess the stockpiles of chemical weapons that the US claimed to have destroyed in the attack.

Also, a Russian official called for an emergency meeting of the UN security council.

“This [the attack] could be viewed as an act of aggression of the US against a UN nation,” Viktor Ozerov told the Russian RIA news, according to the Guardian.

Ozerov, who is the head of the Russian Upper Parliament’s defense and security committee, told RIA that he fears the US attacks could hinder the fight against terrorists.

The US fired 59 missiles at a Syrian airbase in response to the use of chemical weapons on civilians by President Bashar al-Assad’s government earlier this week.

Russia is a close ally of Assad and has sent troops and aircraft to Syria to help him in his 6-year civil war against rebel troops and the terror group ISIS.

US officials said they warned Russia in advance of the attack so as to limit the possibility of creating a conflict with the nuclear-armed nation.

Another Russian official, Andrey Krasnov, the deputy chair of the Russian parliamentary defense committee, called the strikes “Reckless and irresponsible actions.”

“The United States wants to stir up a big fire in the Middle East and by launching 59 cruise tactical missiles they added fuel to the flame,” he added, as cited by RIA.

With Post Wire Services