London: Western powers weighed their options on Friday over possible strikes against Syria’s regime as pressure built to avoid an escalation and Russia stepped up its warnings against military action which it said could lead to “war.”
As US President Donald Trump appeared to back away from imminent action, days after warning Russia to “get ready” for missile strikes, reports emanating from the United States indicated that the aircraft carrier the USS Harry Truman had left the US east coast and was heading, with six other ships that form its battle group, towards Syria.
Ahead of the carrier Harry Truman, the Cook — a destroyer named after a Marine Col. who suffered depravation and starvation as a Vietnam prisoner of war — with more than 60 Tomahawk cruise missiles on board is already in the eastern Mediterranean after having served a stint in the Black Sea during the recent crisis in Crimea. It has prior experience of tangling with the Russian military.
US allies, the UK and France, also expressed readiness to join the punitive attacks against Assad’s regime. The UK is said to have ordered submarines to the eastern Mediterranean as part of bolstering its presence in the area in case of strikes. The UK already has two fighter jet squadrons at its base in Cyprus. Tornado and new Typhoon jet fighters have been operating in support of an operation to remove Daesh from Iraq and Syria. The Akrotiri base will also serve to offer resupply and support logistics for any operation in the region.
The French frigate Acquitaine is already serving alongside US ships tasked with fighting Daesh; a Russian SU-30 recently flew dangerously close to the French ship amid talks of its potential participation in the campaign against Assad’s regime. Aquitaine carries over 30 missiles, half of which are Tomahawk cruise.
In addition, France has two squadrons of Rafale fighters in the region, one operating out of the UAE and the second supporting international efforts against Daesh from Jordan.
Russia’s UN ambassador warned that US-led strikes could lead to a confrontation between the world’s two preeminent nuclear powers.
“We continue to observe dangerous military preparations for an illegal act of force against a sovereign state,” Russian Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia told the Security Council.
In April last year Trump ordered Tomahawk strikes on the Shayrat Airbase in response to a similar chemical weapons attack on rebel-held Khan Sheikhoun.
