Allies praise U.S. strike on Syria as Russia, Iran condemn it Trump's actions in Syria drew strong support from some of America's closest friends.

Support from U.S. allies swelled for President Donald Trump's missile strikes against a Syrian military base, as the first American effort to retaliate against Syrian dictator Bashar Assad sparked new tensions with Russian leaders.

Allies including the United Kingdom, Australia and Israel Friday applauded Trump's decision the night before to order a pair of U.S. Navy destroyers to launch 59 Tomahawk missiles, destroying the Syrian military airbase where aircraft that carried out this week’s chemical weapons attack are believed to have been launched.


The Pentagon said it was investigating the possibility that Russian forces were complicit in the Syrian chemical weapons attack that killed more than 70 people, including young children, although there was currently no evidence to suggest Moscow's involvement. A senior military official said that “at a minimum, Russia failed to reign in the Syrian regime.”

Trump called “on all civilized nations to join us in seeking to end the slaughter and bloodshed in Syria.” The president, speaking at his Mar-a-Lago resort on Florida Thursday night, said the Syrian chemical weapon attack resulted in “a slow and brutal death for so many” and that “no child of God should ever suffer such horror."

The move rattled relationships with Russia and Iran, both allies of the Syrian regime. Moscow, in retaliation, said it was cutting off contact with Washington about ongoing airstrike operations in Syria, although U.S. officials said they had spoken to Russian military there as recently as Friday. The Trump administration also said it was preparing sanctions against Syria, although no details were given.

Assad’s government, which has denied that it was behind the chemical weapons attack, called the attacks “reckless,” the Associated Press reported. About 20 Syrian military aircraft were destroyed by the salvo, U.S. military officials told reporters on Friday.

U.S. leaders have pointed fingers at Russia for failing to enforce a 2013 deal in which Syria was supposed to hand over its chemical weapons. A U.S. military official told reporters there were between 12 and 100 Russians stationed at the airfield where Tuesday’s chemical attack was believed to have originated. “They know every flight operation that goes out of that airfield,” the official said.

Nikki Haley, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, also laid blame squarely at the feet of the Russian government, saying at a Friday meeting of the UN Security Council that Assad had only launched the chemical weapon attack "because he knew Russia would have his back."

She also issued a warning, telling the Security Council that "the United States took a very measured step last night. We are prepared to do more. But we hope that will not be necessary."

Some U.S. allies joined the Russia pile-on. At the same Friday Security Council meeting, UK ambassador Matthew Rycroft suggested that the Kremlin, which helped to broker the deal by which Syria claimed to have surrendered its chemical weapon stockpile, may have learned that “backing a war criminal comes with its own consequence: humiliation.”

“Russia sits here humiliated by its failure to bring to heel a puppet dictator propped up by Russia itself and Hezbollah and Iran,” he said.

The UK government had already applauded Trump’s decision to launch the strikes, as did others. Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull, with whom Trump reportedly had a terse conversation earlier this year, called the missile strikes “a calibrated, proportionate and targeted response.” French President Francois Hollande and German Chancellor Angela Merkel said in a joint statement that Assad “bears sole responsibility” for the missile strike because of his regime’s use of chemical weapons.

Russia’s deputy ambassador to the UN, Vladimir Safronkov, said attacking the Syrian regime would only strengthen terrorists in Syria. “It is not difficult to imagine how much the spirits of these terrorists have been raised after the support from Washington,” he said.

Defense officials said Friday they have seen no retaliation so far against U.S. forces in the region and that the fight against ISIS has not been impacted by the strikes.

Moscow denounced the U.S. strikes as “aggression against a sovereign state in violation of international law.” While the U.S. has claimed intelligence identified the Syrian government as responsible for this week’s chemical weapons attack, Russia says the attack was the result of a traditional airstrike which hit an unknown cache of chemical weapons in a rebel-controlled portion of Syria.

The Russian military also sought to downplay the effectiveness of the U.S. strikes, claiming only 23 of the 59 Tomahawk missiles reached their intended target. Citing a U.S. official, The Associated Press reported that all except one of the American missiles hit their targets.



Morning Defense newsletter Sign up for Morning Defense, a daily briefing on Washington's national security apparatus. Email Sign Up By signing up you agree to receive email newsletters or alerts from POLITICO. You can unsubscribe at any time. This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

On Twitter, Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif noted that his nation, which also backs Assad, had been the victim of a chemical weapon attack by Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein in the 1980s. “Iran condemns use of all WMD by anyone against anyone,” he wrote.

But he called the allegations of a chemical weapon attack by the Syrian government “bogus.”

Still, others in the Middle East backed the strikes. Saudi Arabia lauded Trump’s “courageous decision” to launch missiles against Assad’s military.

Jacqueline Klimas and Nolan McCaskill contributed to this report.