Russia condemns U.S. missile strike on Syria, suspends key air agreement Russian President Vladimir Putin condemned U.S. airstrikes on a Syrian air base as a violation of international law. April 7, 2017 MOSCOW — Russia on Friday condemned the U.S. missile strike against Syrian government forces as an attack against its ally, and said it was pulling out of an agreement to minimize the risk of in-flight incidents between U.S. and Russian aircraft operating over Syria. Even as Russian officials expressed hope that the U.S. strike against Bashad al-Assad would not lead to an irreversible breakdown in relations with Moscow, the Kremlin’s decision to suspend the 2015 memorandum of understanding [ https://www.defense.gov/News/Article/Article/624964/us-russia-sign-memorandum-on-air-safety-in-syria ] on the air operations immediately raised tensions in the skies over Syria. President Vladimir Putin’s spokesman said the risk of confrontation between aerial assets of the U.S.-led coalition and Russia has “significantly increased” after President Trump ordered the launch 59 Tomahawk cruise missiles at a Syrian military air base in retaliation for a chemical attack [ https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/turkish-autopsies-confirm-chemical-weapons-used-in-syria-attack-that-killed-scores/2017/04/06/4d660ac4-1aa7-11e7-8003-f55b4c1cfae2_story.html ] that killed scores of civilians. The now-scrapped pact traded information about flights by a U.S.-led coalition targeting the Islamic State and Russian planes operating in Syria backing the Assad government. The Russian spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, further claimed that the Syrian government had no chemical weapons, and dismissed the Trump administration’s explanation as an excuse to enter the conflict. “President Putin considers the American strikes against Syria an aggression against a sovereign government in violations of the norms of international law, and under a far-fetched pretext,” Peskov told reporters. “This step by Washington is causing significant damage to Russian-American relations, which are already in a deplorable state.” “Of course, Syria is our ally, considering that we are helping the Syrian armed forces at the Syrian leadership's request,” Peskov said. The strike creates the possibility of a direct confrontation with Russia, which has forces on the ground and advanced air-defense systems capable of shooting down U.S. aircraft and missiles. The 2015 agreement details steps Russian and U.S.-led coalition pilots should take to avoid accidental encounters as they carry out strikes against separate targets. It was also intended to head off the possibility of Russian air defenses shooting down U.S. aircraft, drones or missiles. Russia’s foreign ministry spokeswoman, Maria Zakharova, said Friday that Moscow “will never agree to attacks on the legitimate authorities” in Syria. “We see these actions taken by the American side as a grave violation of the memorandum,” Russian Defense Ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov told reporters on Friday. Russia, he added, would help strengthen Syrian air defenses to “protect the most sensitive Syrian infrastructure facilities.” There have been no reports of Russian casualties in Friday’s strike, but Syria officials claimed there were civilian casualties, including children. [...] https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/europe/russia-condemns-us-missile-strike-on-syria/2017/04/07/c81ea12a-1b4e-11e7-8003-f55b4c1cfae2_story.html [with embedded video, and comments]
News 
Market Data 
Discover 
