US President Donald Trump’s administration warned that it is ready to take further military action if the regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad wages another chemical attack, even as this week’s missile strike ratcheted up tensions with Russia.
US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and his counterpart Sergei Lavrov discussed the Syria situation during a telephone call on Saturday initiated by the US, the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs said on Facebook.
In the call, Lavrov told Tillerson the US move against Syrian government forces threatened the fight against terrorism and that Russia does not believe the Syrian military used chemical weapons, calling for a “thorough and impartial” investigation. Tillerson is to travel to Moscow on Wednesday, the US Department of State said.
The White House has not so far given the indication the US intends to intervene more broadly in Syria’s civil war after Thursday night’s bombing. Howeverm the contours of the West’s response might be shifting.
Tillerson said Russia was “complicit” in Syria’s use of chemical weapons or “incompetent” for having failed to keep its end of a 2013 agreement that was supposed to remove al-Assad’s chemical weapons stockpiles.
At the Pentagon, a military official, briefing reporters on condition of anonymity, said the US is assessing any information that would implicate the Russians knew or assisted in the latest poison-gas attack.
The US detected a drone, belonging either to the Syrian regime or Russia, flying above a nearby hospital as victims from the chemical attack poured in, the official said.
About five hours later, the drone returned overhead and the hospital was struck by a Russian-made fixed-wing aircraft, the official said, adding it was not clear who was operating the aircraft.
The US is interested in whether the hospital strike was done to potentially hide evidence of the chemical attack.
Pakistani police yesterday said a father shot dead his daughter after she refused to delete her TikTok account. In the Muslim-majority country, women can be subjected to violence by family members for not following strict rules on how to behave in public, including in online spaces. “The girl’s father had asked her to delete her TikTok account. On refusal, he killed her,” a police spokesperson said. Investigators said the father killed his 16-year-old daughter on Tuesday “for honor,” the police report said. The man was subsequently arrested. The girl’s family initially tried to “portray the murder as a suicide” said police in
The military is to begin conscripting civilians next year, Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Manet said yesterday, citing rising tensions with Thailand as the reason for activating a long-dormant mandatory enlistment law. The Cambodian parliament in 2006 approved a law that would require all Cambodians aged 18 to 30 to serve in the military for 18 months, although it has never been enforced. Relations with Thailand have been tense since May, when a long-standing territorial dispute boiled over into cross-border clashes, killing one Cambodian soldier. “This episode of confrontation is a lesson for us and is an opportunity for us to review, assess and
The Russian minister of foreign affairs warned the US, South Korea and Japan against forming a security partnership targeting North Korea as he visited the ally country for talks on further solidifying their booming military and other cooperation. Russian Minister of Foreign Affairs Sergei Lavrov spoke on Saturday in Wonsan City, North Korea, where he met North Korean Leader Kim Jong-un and conveyed greetings from Russian President Vladimir Putin. Kim during the meeting reaffirmed his government’s commitment to “unconditionally support and encourage all measures” taken by Russia in its conflict with Ukraine. Pyongyang and Moscow share identical views on “all strategic issues in
‘FALSE NARRATIVE’: China and the Solomon Islands inked a secretive security pact in 2022, which is believed to be a prelude to building a Chinese base, which Beijing denied The Australian government yesterday said it expects China to spy on major military drills it is conducting with the US and other allies. It also renewed a charge — denounced by Beijing as a “false narrative” — that China wants to establish a military base in the South Pacific. The comments by a government minister came as Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese made a six-day visit to China to bolster recently repaired trade ties. More than 30,000 military personnel from 19 nations are set to join in the annual Talisman Sabre exercises from yesterday across Australia and Papua New Guinea. “The Chinese military have
RSS