Trump vows to hit Syria; warns Russia

In tweets, he also laments worsening ties with Moscow

Syrian President Bashar Assad meets a delegation of Muslim clerics from around the world Wednesday in Damascus. A spokesman for Iran’s supreme leader said Wednesday that Tehran would support Assad against foreign aggression.
Syrian President Bashar Assad meets a delegation of Muslim clerics from around the world Wednesday in Damascus. A spokesman for Iran’s supreme leader said Wednesday that Tehran would support Assad against foreign aggression.

WASHINGTON -- President Donald Trump put Syria and Russia on notice Wednesday morning in a Twitter post, promising that missiles fired at Syria "will be coming" and telling the Kremlin that it should not partner with a "Gas Killing Animal" who enjoys killing his people.

After the threat, the president said in a separate tweet that relations between the United States and Russia are worse than ever.

The president appeared to be reacting to reports Tuesday that the Russian ambassador to Lebanon, Alexander Zasypkin, warned the United States and its allies that any missiles fired at Syria would be shot down and the launching sites targeted, a threat echoed by Russian lawmakers in recent days. Zasypkin made those comments in an interview with Al Manar Television.

"Russia vows to shoot down any and all missiles fired at Syria. Get ready Russia, because they will be coming, nice and new and 'smart!' You shouldn't be partners with a Gas Killing Animal who kills his people and enjoys it!" Trump said in his first tweet Wednesday on Syria.

Trump's early morning comments were remarkable in that he appeared to be telegraphing the United States' response to a suspected chemical weapons attack in Syria, which is something he had previously criticized other leaders for doing. Trump has said publicly that sharing military plans could give enemies information they could use to their advantage.

With U.S. strike intentions forecast by Trump, the Syrian government has moved key aircraft to the Russian base near Latakia and is taking pains to secure important weapons systems, analysts said.

Still, Pentagon officials said that even if Syrian warplanes manage to elude a U.S.-led strike campaign, the United States and its allies can still seek to damage Syrian airfields across the country so that Syrian President Bashar Assad's ability to use them to launch future chemical weapons attacks would be hampered.

That kind of damage, however, would require a sustained campaign -- likely over a number of days, officials said. Trump did not detail Wednesday what a strike on Syria would look like, or whether these would be U.S. missiles. U.S. officials have been consulting with France, Britain and other allies on a possible joint military operation, but the timing remained in doubt.

A joint military operation, possibly with France rather than the U.S. in the lead, could send a message of international unity about enforcing the prohibitions on chemical weapons and counter Syria's political and military support from Russia and Iran.

At the United Nations on Wednesday, Secretary-General Antonio Guterres stressed the need to prevent the situation in Syria from "spiraling out of control."

After he warned Russia what it would be up against in Syria, Trump lamented in a subsequent morning tweet that relations between the two countries were worse than during the Cold War, a decadeslong geopolitical and ideological rivalry between the United States and the Soviet Union when both were armed for, and prepared for, nuclear war.

"Our relationship with Russia is worse now than it has ever been, and that includes the Cold War," Trump wrote in that tweet. "There is no reason for this. Russia needs us to help with their economy, something that would be very easy to do, and we need all nations to work together. Stop the arms race?"

RUSSIA BLAMES REBELS

Trump has been critical of Russia and its president, Vladimir Putin, for supporting the Syrian regime believed to be behind the suspected chemical weapons attack Saturday that has left dozens dead. He called the suspected chemical attack a "barbaric act" and suggested Putin bears some responsibility.

"He may, and if he does, it's going to be very tough, very tough," Trump said Monday. "Everybody's going to pay a price. He will, everybody will."

Russia has blamed the suspected chemical attacks on the Syrian opposition forces. On Wednesday, Maria Zakharova, the Russian foreign ministry spokesman, said that if the U.S. missiles were so smart then they should hit "terrorists" and not government targets. She also suggested in a posting on Facebook that the missile attack might destroy evidence of the use of chemical weapons.

The attack Saturday in the Damascus suburb of Douma has not been confirmed to be the result of a chemical weapon. This is in contrast to an incident a year ago in which the U.S. government had video and other evidence of certain aspects of an actual attack by Syrian aircraft, which involved the use of sarin gas. Trump responded then by launching dozens of Navy cruise missiles at a Syrian airfield.

Asked whether the U.S. military was ready to conduct an attack in Syria if ordered, Defense Secretary James Mattis replied, "We stand ready to provide military options if they're appropriate, as the president determined."

Mattis also stressed that the U.S. is still assessing the intelligence on the suspected chemical attack but that military planning was proceeding. He was to meet with Trump later Wednesday.

The World Health Organization said Wednesday that there were reports of about 500 people in the Damascus suburb of Douma who have symptoms similar to people exposed to toxic chemicals. It said about 70 people had died while taking shelter in basements and 43 of them had signs of being exposed to "highly toxic chemicals."

Trump's tough talk on Russia, when it comes to Syria, marks a strikingly different tone for the president, who has long pushed for improved relations with the Kremlin. Recently, Trump praised Putin for his re-election and even invited him to the White House.

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Later in the morning, Trump clarified his assessment of the poor relations with Russia in another tweet, blaming the decline in Washington-Moscow ties on the ongoing investigation into Russia's meddling in the 2016 election.

Putin's spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, was dismissive of Trump's Wednesday tweets.

"We don't participate in Twitter diplomacy," he said in comments reported by the Interfax news agency. "We advocate serious approaches."

Putin did not address the tweets directly while greeting new foreign ambassadors to Moscow at the Kremlin. But he reiterated his frequent call for global stability -- which can only be accomplished, in the Kremlin's view, by giving Russia a prominent role in a "multipolar" rather than U.S.-led world order.

Meanwhile, prepared remarks for Mike Pompeo, the CIA director picked to be the next secretary of state, suggested he desired a shift in the administration's tone on Russia.

Soft U.S. policy toward Russia is "now over," Pompeo will tell the Senate today in his confirmation hearing. Drawing a sharp contrast with predecessor Rex Tillerson, Pompeo will vow to promote democracy and human rights while ending "demoralizing" vacancies at the State Department.

According to the prepared remarks, Pompeo will chastise Russia for acting "aggressively" and emphasize that the Trump administration considers Russia "a danger to our country." But he will also say that diplomatic efforts with Moscow, while challenging, "must continue."

The Associated Press obtained excerpts of his remarks from a senior Trump administration official.

U.S. THREATS

With a mix of fear and defiance, Syrians braced Wednesday for a possible U.S. attack.

Some stocked up on food and prepared underground shelters while others taunted the U.S. president to go through with his threats.

"They have threatened us a thousand times. Let them go through with it or shut up," a participant wrote on social media, in an online poll asking if Syrians were afraid of a U.S. attack.

Others were more fearful.

One woman who refused to be identified because of fear for her security described herself as "trembling" and said she stocked up on food and is considering not sending her kids to school. Others said they have readied underground basements for cover.

"People say Trump is insane and he would like to carry out his threats," the woman said.

The Foreign Ministry in Damascus on Wednesday denounced Trump's threat to attack the country as "reckless" and a danger to international peace and security.

While Trump did not disclose the exact date and time of a missile strike, activists such as the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported that government forces were vacating strategic potential targets, including air bases around the country, in apparent preparation.

And the government's allies were lining up to back the regime.

The top adviser to Iran's supreme leader said Wednesday that Tehran would support Damascus against any foreign aggression, Iran's state television reported.

"Iran backs Syria in its fight against America and the Zionist regime," Ali Akbar Velayati, the supreme leader's adviser, told state television during a visit to eastern Ghouta in Syria. Iranian officials call Israel "the Zionist regime."

Velayati said of the United States, "Their habit is to threaten constantly, and the only thing they know how to do is bombing. Haven't Syria and Iran been bombed before?"

Concerns about potential U.S. strikes on targets in Syria also affected several international airlines, prompting them to divert some of their planes Wednesday. And in a rare move, Europe's air traffic control agency, Eurocontrol, issued a rapid alert notification Tuesday warning that missiles may pose a threat over the three following days.

Trump canceled a planned trip to Latin America later this week to oversee a U.S. response to Syria, the White House said. And the president met with his military commanders Monday to discuss options.

But publicly discussing U.S. military plans is in contrast to how he has said he would conduct himself as commander in chief.

During tensions with North Korea in April 2017, he said in an interview on Fox & Friends that he would not say whether he would order a strike if the rogue nation continued conducting missile tests.

"I don't want to telegraph what I am doing or what I am thinking," Trump said. "I am not like other administrations, where they say, 'We are going to do this in four weeks.' It doesn't work that way. We'll see what happens."

Information for this article was contributed by Eileen Sullivan and Michael D. Shear of The New York Times; by Josh Lederman, Matthew Lee, Matthew Pennington, Sarah El Deeb and Albert Aji of The Associated Press; and by Anton Troianovski and Rick Noack of The Washington Post.

photo

AP/CLIFF OWEN

Defense Secretary James Mattis said Wednesday at the Pentagon that military planning was proceeding as was an assessment to confirm that a chemical attack occurred Saturday in a Damascus suburb. “We stand ready to provide military options if they’re appropriate, as the president determined,” Mattis said.

A Section on 04/12/2018

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