"We were very sorry", Melkite Archbishop Jean-Clement Jeanbart of Aleppo responded to Thursday's missile strike by the United States on a Syrian government airbase near Homs, in retaliation for what the USA said was a chemical attack conducted by government forces on civilians.
The Trump administration's April 6 targeted missile strike on the Syrian airbase from which the chemical attack was launched is not a reflection of any genuine concern for the Syrian people. Ministers meeting in Lucca, central Italy, have strongly supported USA missile strikes that targeted a Syrian air base believed to have been used to launch the attack.
"The reign of the Assad family is coming to an end", he confidently predicted. Why would Assad, who is winning the war and had been told America was no longer demanding his removal, order a nerve gas attack on children, certain to ignite America's rage, for no military gain?
"Then on Russian Federation in particular, I think that if you look at the counties that are with us, it speaks pretty loudly the number of countries that have stood shoulder to shoulder with this President".
The April 4 chemical weapons attack on the rebel-held town in Idlib province left almost 90 people dead.
"We have not seen a single fact, or even a hint of facts", he said.
Putin likened last week's use of chemical weapons to the supposed existence of weapons of mass destruction that led to the invasion of Iraq in 2003.
The escalating dispute over last week's events in the Syrian town of Khan Sheikhoun has thrust Washington and Moscow into a level of tension rarely seen since the end of the Cold War.
Syrians have praised Trump for the airstrike.
"After that, if of course we can find people, whether they are Syrians or whether they are Russians associated with the Syrian military operation, it is in my view wholly appropriate that they should face economic sanctions or sanctions of some other kind", he said.
Foreign ministers from the seven countries said Moscow must change its attitude to Assad if there is to be hope of ending the brutal conflict that has destabilized the Middle East, driven millions to escape Syria and further frayed relations between the West and Russian Federation.
It also said that Trump thanked for the support given by the United Kingdom after the missile strikes against Assad regime.
New Zealanders brace for 2nd major storm in just over a week
Due to the forecast storm conditions, Air New Zealand advises customers to anticipate delays and cancellations across its network. It was too hard to give an estimate on how many people have been affected across Coromandel by flooding or self-evacuations.
After years of calling for Mr Assad's removal during former president Barack Obama's tenure, Washington appeared to be stepping back from seeking regime change in Syria in recent weeks.
Alfano says Russian Federation should put pressure on Assad to stop the use of chemical weapons, and should join an worldwide push for peace in Syria.
"Russia's allegations fit with a pattern of deflecting blame from the regime and attempting to undermine the credibility of its opponents", the official said.
Defense Secretary Jim Mattis told reporters at the Pentagon, "It is very clear who planned this attack, who authorized this attack and who orchestrated this attack".
"We remain united in using a wide array of foreign policy tools, including restrictive measures and sanctions, with the goal of persuading Russian Federation to return to a path of shared respect of those principles".
Britain's Johnson, who had been due to visit Russian counterpart Sergey Lavrov in Moscow ahead of Monday's G-7 meeting, canceled the trip at the last minute, saying the chemical attack had "changed the situation fundamentally".
"Syria is a signatory to that worldwide convention". Russia wants the U.S.to eliminate sanctions on Moscow related to its 2014 annexation of Ukraine's Crimea region and support for pro-Russian separatists in eastern Ukraine.
Archbishop Jeanbart expressed his wish that the US had investigated first to ensure who were the perpetrators of Tuesday's deaths by gas before taking military action.
Trump promised a policy different than Obama's on the Islamic State.
In a letter to Trump, two Republican lawmakers Senator Marco Rubio and Congressman Peter Roskam urged him to suspend aircraft sales to Iran arguing that Tehran is using commercial passenger aircraft to supply its worldwide network of terror proxies, including the Assad regime in Syria. No such "deconfliction" agreement exists with Iran's military and paramilitary, meaning there was no way to prevent its personnel from being in the wrong place at the wrong time during the missile attack.
There were rumors then that some of this missing stockpile fell into ISIS hands, and it is likely that the regime held back an amount of sarin and its precursors for use in times of trouble.
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