US President Donald Trump has promised quick, forceful action in response to a deadly suspected chemical weapons attack in Syria, appearing to suggest a potential military response.

Trump told a meeting with military leaders and national security advisers he would make a decision by Monday night "or very shortly thereafter" on a response, adding that the US had "a lot of options militarily" on Syria.

"But we can't let atrocities like we all witnessed ... we can't let that happen in our world ... especially when we're able to because of the power of the United States, the power of our country, we're able to stop it."

The suspected chemical weapons attack late on Saturday killed at least 60 people, with more than 1000 injured at several sites in Douma, a city near the capital, Damascus, according to a Syrian aid organisation.

Initial US assessments have been unable to determine conclusively what materials were used in the attack and could not say with certainty that Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's government forces were behind it.

Trump said, however, that Washington was "getting more clarity" on who was responsible for the attack.

US officials told Reuters that Washington was weighing a multinational military response.

Trump and French President Emmanuel Macron spoke by telephone to coordinate their response, seeking a "strong reaction" from the international community, Macron's office said.

On Sunday, Trump, criticised Russian President Vladimir Putin by name on Twitter as he castigated Russia and Iran for backing "Animal Assad."

Moscow said it warned the US of "grave repercussions" if it carried out an attack against Syrian government forces.

The Syrian government and its ally Russia have denied involvement in the attack.

International bodies led by the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) were trying to establish exactly what happened in Douma, a rebel-held town in the eastern Ghouta district.

Syrian government forces had launched an air and ground assault on Douma, the last town held by rebels in eastern Ghouta, on Friday.

The Russian military said on Monday its medics had examined patients in a hospital in Douma and had found no traces of a chemical attack, Interfax news agency reported.

The Syria conflict was further complicated on Monday when unidentified war planes struck a Syrian air base near Homs, killing at least 14 people, including Iranian personnel. Syria and Russia accused Israel of carrying out the attack.

Israel, which has struck Syrian army locations many times in the course of its neighbour's civil war, has neither confirmed nor denied mounting the raid.

But Israeli officials said the Tiyas, or T-4, air base was being used by troops from Iran and that Israel would not accept such a presence in Syria of its arch foe.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said the strike on the T-4 base was a dangerous development.</s>Trump administration officials have consulted with global allies on a possible joint military response to Syria's alleged poison gas attack, as President Donald Trump cancelled a foreign trip in order to manage a crisis that is testing his vow to stand up to Syrian president Bashar Assad.

Mr Trump spoke with other world leaders, and other US officials said the US, France and Britain were in extensive consultations about launching a military strike as early as the end of this week.

None of the three countries' leaders had made a firm decision, according to the officials.

A joint military operation, possibly with France rather than the US 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.

President Emmanuel Macron said France, the US and Britain will decide how to respond in the coming days.

He called for a "strong and joint response" to the attack in the Syrian town of Douma on Saturday, which Syrian activists and rescuers say killed 40 people. The Syrian government denies responsibility.

The French president does not need parliamentary permission to launch a military operation. France is already involved in the US-led coalition created in 2014 to fight the Islamic State group in Syria and Iraq.

Multiple IS attacks have targeted French soil, including one last month.

Mr Trump suggested on Monday he had little doubt that Syrian government forces were to blame for what he said was a chemical attack, but neither he nor other administration officials have produced hard evidence.

Officials suggested such evidence was lacking, or at least not yet at hand. This is in contrast to an incident one year ago in which US intelligence agencies had video and other evidence of certain aspects of the actual attack, which involved the use of Sarin gas. Mr Trump responded by launching Navy cruise missiles at a Syrian airfield.

One official said the US, France and Britain were considering military options that would be more extensive than the punitive, one-day strike last April.

That strike did not appear to have had the desired effect of deterring Assad from further use of chemical agents. So the three countries are discussing a range of options, including preventing Assad from conducting future attacks by striking military capabilities involved in carrying out such attack, the official said.

Asked whether France would take military action, Mr Macron said his country will continue discussing technical and strategic information with US and British allies and "in the coming days we will announce our decision".

He said any action would "target chemical weapons" stocks. Under a 2013 agreement for which Russia was a guarantor, Syria was to have eliminated all its chemical weapons, but it has used chlorine and perhaps other chemicals since then.

Mr Trump spoke by phone with Prime Minister Theresa May. A British government statement said the two agreed the attack in Syria was "utterly reprehensible" and that the international community must respond "to uphold the worldwide prohibition on the use of chemical weapons".

Mr Trump met at the White House with the emir of Qatar, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, who told reporters that he and Mr Trump "see eye to eye" on the Syria problem.

"We cannot tolerate with a war criminal," the emir said, adding, "This matter should end immediately." Qatar hosts the United States' main air operations centre for the Middle East, which would coordinate any American air attack in Syria.

A watchdog agency, the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, announced that it will send "shortly" a fact-finding mission to Douma, after receiving a request from the Syrian government and its Russian backers to investigate the allegations.

It was not immediately clear whether that visit would delay or avert U.S. or allied military action.

The Russian military, which has troops in Syria, said on Monday that its officers had visited the site of the alleged attack and found no evidence to back up reports of poison gas being used.

White House spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders said that Mr Trump will not attend the 8th Summit of the Americas in Lima, Peru, or travel to Bogota, Colombia, as planned. She said he will stay home to "oversee the American response to Syria and to monitor developments around the world".

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Search for jobs, motors and property, or place an advert or family notice here</s>WASHINGTON/BEIRUT (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump warned Russia on Wednesday of imminent military action in Syria over a suspected poison gas attack, declaring that missiles “will be coming” and lambasting Moscow for standing by Syrian President Bashar Assad.

Trump was reacting to a warning from Assad’s main ally Russia on Tuesday that any U.S. missiles fired at Syria over the deadly assault on a rebel enclave would be shot down and the launch sites targeted.

“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!’,” Trump wrote in a post on Twitter.

“You shouldn’t be partners with a Gas Killing Animal who kills his people and enjoys it!” Trump said, referring Moscow’s alliance with Assad.

In response, Russia’s Foreign Ministry said in a Facebook post that “smart missiles should fly towards terrorists, not towards the lawful government”, referring to Syrian rebels and Assad respectively.

Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said any U.S. missile strike could be an attempt to destroy evidence of the reported chemical weapons attack in the Syrian town of Douma, for which Damascus and Moscow have denied any responsibility.

After the attack, the rebel group holed up in Douma - Jaish al-Islam - finally agreed to withdraw from the town. That sealed a major victory for Assad in Syria’s civil war, crushing a protracted rebellion in the eastern Ghouta region near Damascus.

Officials at the White House did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for more details about Trump’s comments on the planned military action. The U.S. Defense Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The World Health Organization said on Wednesday that 43 people had died in Saturday’s attack on Douma from “symptoms consistent with exposure to highly toxic chemicals”, and more than 500 in all had been treated.

Moscow’s threat to down U.S. missiles came from its ambassador to Lebanon, Alexander Zasypkin, who said he was referring to a statement by President Vladimir Putin and the Russian armed forces chief of staff.

Zasypkin also said that any hostilities with Washington should be avoided and Moscow was ready for negotiations.

But his remarks could raise fears of direct conflict for the first time between major powers backing opposing sides in Syria’s protracted civil war.

Oil prices hit their highest level in more than three years on Wednesday after Trump’s threat to unleash missiles, and U.S. stock index futures fell sharply over rising concern about possible Russian-U.S. conflict over Syria.

The Kremlin said earlier on Wednesday it hoped all sides involved in Syria would avoid doing anything to destabilize an already fragile situation in the Middle East, and made clear it strongly opposed any U.S. strike on its ally.

Moscow and Washington stymied attempts by each other at the United Nations Security Council on Tuesday to set up international investigations into chemical weapons attacks in Syria.

Trump canceled on Tuesday a planned trip to Latin America later this week to focus instead on talks with Western allies about possible military action to punish Assad over the suspected gas attack.

Trump had warned on Monday of a quick, forceful response once responsibility for the attack was established.

“If there is a strike by the Americans, then ... the missiles will be downed and even the sources from which the missiles were fired,” Zasypkin, the Russian ambassador, told Hezbollah’s al-Manar TV, speaking in Arabic.

The Russian military said on March 13 that it would respond to any U.S. strike on Syria by targeting any missiles and launchers involved. Russia is Assad’s most powerful ally and its devastating air power has helped him wrest back large areas of territory from rebels since 2015.

Zasypkin also said a clash between Russia and the United States over Syria “should be ruled out and therefore we are ready to hold negotiations”.

Any U.S. strike is likely to involve the navy, given the risk to aircraft from Russian and Syrian air defence systems. A U.S. Navy guided-missile destroyer, the USS Donald Cook, is in the Mediterranean.

With tensions growing, pan-European air traffic control agency Eurocontrol warned airlines to exercise caution in the eastern Mediterranean due to the possible launch of air strikes into Syria over the next 72 hours.

Eurocontrol said that air-to-ground and cruise missiles could be used within that period and there could be intermittent disruptions of radio navigation equipment.

Aviation regulators have been stepping up monitoring of conflict zones since Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 was downed by a surface-to-air missile over Ukraine in 2014, killing all 298 people on board. Recent warnings have tended to be after military action has started, and so Eurocontrol’s pre-emptive notice suggests a heightening of regulatory scrutiny.

Both Russia and Iran, Assad’s other main ally, have warned his enemies against military action in recent days, underlining their commitment to the Syrian government they have armed and supported through years of conflict.

Ali Akbar Velayati, the top adviser to Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, said during a visit to Damascus on Tuesday that an Israeli attack on an air base in Syria earlier this week would “not remain without response”.

On Monday, U.N. Syria peace envoy Staffan de Mistura cited the air base strike along with other recent events in Syria in a briefing to the Security Council, cautioning against a “situation of uncontrollable escalation”.

Syria’s Russian-supplied air defences shot down an Israeli F-16 jet in February during a previous bombing run against what Israel described as Iranian-backed positions in Syria.

Last year, the United States carried out strikes from two Navy destroyers against a Syrian air base after another toxic gas attack on a rebel-controlled pocket.

The U.S. and Russian militaries have sought to avoid conflict in Syria, notably last year in the Euphrates River Valley where they supported rival sides in the campaign against Islamic State militants.

However, U.S. forces in February killed or injured hundreds of Russian contractors fighting on Assad’s side during a confrontation in Deir al-Zor province.

French President Emmanuel Macron said on Tuesday that any military action would not target the Syrian government’s allies or anybody in particular, but rather the Syrian government’s chemical facilities.

Any U.S. strike similar to the limited one launched last year would not cause a shift in the course of the war that has been going Assad’s way since Russia intervened on his side.

The WHO said that among the more than 500 people treated for symptoms of gas poisoning in Douma, “there were signs of severe irritation of mucous membranes, respiratory failure and disruption to central nervous systems of those exposed”.

France and Britain discussed with the Trump administration how to respond to the Douma attack. Both stressed that the culprit still needed to be confirmed.

The Hague-based Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons said Assad’s government had been asked to make necessary arrangements for an OPCW investigation team to visit shortly.

The mission will aim to determine whether banned munitions were used but not assign blame.

Despite the international revulsion over chemical weapons attacks, the death toll from such incidents in Syria is only a fraction of the hundreds of thousands of combatants and civilians killed since the war erupted in 2011.</s>BEIRUT -- The international chemical weapons watchdog said Tuesday it will send a fact-finding mission to the Syrian town where a suspected gas attack took place over the weekend, after receiving a request from the Syrian government and its Russian backers to investigate the allegations.

In a statement, the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons said a fact-finding team is "preparing to deploy to Syria shortly."

It was not immediately clear whether the announcement would avert U.S. military action against Syria. President Donald Trump has vowed to respond "forcefully" to Saturday's attack on civilians in the town of Douma, in the eastern Ghouta suburbs, and warned that Russia -- or any other nation found to share responsibility -- will "pay a price."

Trump on Tuesday cancelled plans to travel to South America later this week, choosing to stay in the United States to manage the response to the events in Syria.

Syrian government forces were on high alert and taking precautionary measures Tuesday at military positions across the country amid fears of a U.S. strike in the aftermath of the attack near Damascus.

The OPCW, in its statement, said its technical Secretariat has asked the Syrian government to make the necessary arrangements for the deployment of a fact-finding mission. The group is the implementing body for the Chemical Weapons Convention of 1997, which has been signed by 192 member states.

Syria became a member in 2013 as part of a deal brokered by the U.S. and Russia after a chemical attack in eastern Ghouta killed hundreds of people. That attack was widely blamed on government forces, who denied responsibility.

Syrian opposition activists and paramedics said at least 40 people were killed in last weekend's suspected chemical attack and blamed the government. The Syrian government and its Russian backers strongly deny the allegations, and have questioned whether a chemical weapons attack took place.

Earlier Tuesday, Syria invited the OPCW to send a fact-finding mission to Douma, the last rebel stronghold in the eastern Ghouta suburbs. The Foreign Ministry said in a statement that the government will help the watchdog investigate the alleged attack.

U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said Tuesday he is outraged by the reported attack, and that the use of chemical weapons would be a violation of international law. He also reaffirmed his support for an OPCW investigation.

A senior Russian lawmaker said Tuesday that Moscow is willing to help arrange an OPCW visit to the site of the suspected attack. Yevgeny Serberennikov, from the defence committee at the Federation Council, told the RIA Novosti news agency that Russia is eager for the OPCW to "finally start carrying out the functions it was created for."

Asked in Berlin whether she supports the idea, German Chancellor Angela Merkel responded unenthusiastically, saying that "the evidence that chemical weapons were used there is very, very clear."

A Syrian air base was struck by missiles a little more than 24 hours after the alleged chemical attack, an airstrike that Syria and Russia have blamed on Israel. Israel does not typically comment on its operations in Syria, and it is unclear whether the missile attack was linked to the alleged use of chemical weapons.

Seven Iranians were among the estimated 14 people killed in the missile attack, and a senior Iranian official visiting Damascus said the attack "will not remain unanswered." Ali Akbar Velayati, an aide to Iran's supreme leader, spoke upon arrival in the Syrian capital on Tuesday, and was quoted by Iran's state-run news agency IRNA.

Iran's semi-official Tasnim news agency put the number of Iranians killed in the missile attack at seven. It said the victims have been transferred to Tehran, and that funerals will be held in the victims' hometowns across the country.

Iran is one of Assad's strongest backers and has sent thousands of troops and allied militiamen to support his forces.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said that as of Monday night, troops have been on a 72-hour alert and are fortifying their positions. The Observatory's chief, Rami Abdurrahman, said the alert includes all army positions and bases from the southern province of Sweida all the way to Aleppo province in the north, the Mediterranean coast in the west to Deir el-Zour province in the east, along the Iraqi border.

The Sound and Picture Organization, an activist collective in eastern Syria, said that Iranian fighters and members of Lebanon's Hezbollah group have evacuated their positions in the Boukamal area, near the Iraqi border, which was recently retaken from the Islamic State group.

A Lebanese politician with close links to the Syrian government confirmed that precautionary measures were being taken throughout Syria. The politician, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak about secret military movements, said the atmosphere and U.S. statements hint at a possible strike, "but there are no indications on the ground so far."

The politician said the Syrian government was expecting a limited U.S. strike, similar to the one on Shayrat air base last year, which came after an alleged chemical attack on a rebel-held town in northern Syria that killed dozens of people.

Associated Press writer Nataliya Vasilyeva in Moscow, Nasser Karimi in Tehran, Iran, and Geir Moulson in Berlin contributed to this report.</s>Clever wheezes in the Middle East have the tendency to not look very smart for very long. A case in point, as has become sharply evident this week, is the much-vaunted “deconfliction” arrangement between Russia and Israel after the former entered the war in Syria on the side of the Syrian president, Bashar al-Assad.

Negotiated between Vladimir Putin and Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, it was held up at first as evidence of the latter’s diplomatic skills – an arrangement that allowed Israel a free hand against weapons transfers from Iran to Hezbollah and maintained Israeli deterrence on its northern border.

If that arrangement has for long looked very shaky, the reaction of Russia and Iran to Israeli strikes this week on an airbase in Syria, killing seven Iranian advisers, has brutally exposed the assumptions that underlie it, not least Moscow’s tolerance for Israel’s assumption of its freedom of action.

The reality is that Israel – and Netanyahu in particular – has badly misread the trajectory of Russia’s re-engagement in the Middle East, which has created in the very kindest interpretation the context for Iran’s projection of its influence ever further west and ever closer to Israel’s borders.

Why all this matters in the current febrile context following the latest alleged use of chemical weapons in Syria, is that Israel’s misjudgments sit at one corner of a dangerous matrix of unpredictability, perhaps unseen – as James Hohmann argued in the Washington Post – since the secretary of state Dean Acheson suggested in 1950 that Korea was outside the core defence perimeter of the US.

On the American side that uncertainty around intentions has seen Donald Trump flip-flop so dramatically that in a handful of days he has somersaulted from suggesting first that his country was rushing for the exit on Syria to a situation where military strikes seem likely.

In Israel, a wounded Netanyahu – who has built an entire political career on promising to be a bulwark against Iran – is now being confronted with his rhetoric and the consequence of his actions, not least his bloody public pricking of Iran in a way that Tehran may now find hard to discount.

In the final corner there is Putin, whose calculations are opaque because that is his intention – not least over his ambitions and red lines.

The result is a highly combustible situation in which no party to the conflict – direct or otherwise – can be certain of the assumptions that the others are operating under.

All of which has created what Stephen Pinker describes in his illuminating book on violence and war, The Better Angels of Our Nature, as a classic “security” or “Hobbesian” dilemma, a situation where actions by a state ostensibly to heighten their security can prompt other states to act pre-emptively, risking a fugue of escalation. As more violence seems likely, what is also troubling is that the key mechanism for avoiding such an escalation – the UN security council – seems profoundly weakened by the further weaponisation of the US and Russian vetoes under both Trump and Putin.

History teaches us that wars – from the first world war to Korea, the six-day war and the Falklands – are often fuelled by failures of messaging and interpretation.

Looking around the Middle East today never has that felt more true. And never have wise heads been in such short supply.
• Peter Beaumont is a Guardian reporter and former Jerusalem correspondent</s>BEIRUT/UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - International chemical weapons experts will go to the Syrian town of Douma to investigate a suspected poison gas attack, their organization said on Tuesday, as the United States and other Western powers consider military action over the incident.

U.S. President Donald Trump, who had been due to travel to Peru on Friday, canceled a trip to Latin America to focus on responding to the Syria incident, the White House said. Trump on Monday warned of a quick, forceful response once responsibility for the attack was established.

France and Britain also discussed with the Trump administration how to respond to the incident. Both stressed that the culprit in the incident still needed to be confirmed.

At least 60 people were killed and more than 1,000 injured in Saturday’s suspected attack on Douma, then still occupied by rebel forces, according to a Syrian relief group.

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s government and its ally Russia have said there was no evidence a gas attack had taken place and that the claim was bogus.

The incident has thrust Syria’s seven-year-old conflict back to the forefront of international concern and pitted Washington and Moscow against each other again.

Russia and the United States were headed for a showdown at the United Nations over how to respond to the Douma attack.

Aggravating the volatile situation in the region, Iran, Assad’s other main ally, threatened to respond to an air strike on a Syrian military base on Monday that Tehran, Damascus and Moscow have blamed on Israel.

In Syria, thousands of militants and their families arrived in rebel-held parts of the country’s northwest after surrendering Douma to government forces.

Their evacuation restored Assad’s control over the eastern Ghouta, formerly the biggest rebel bastion near Damascus, and gave him his biggest battlefield victory since 2016, when he took back Aleppo.

The Hague-based Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) said Syria had been asked to make the necessary arrangements for the deployment of an investigation team.

“The team is preparing to deploy to Syria shortly,” it said in a statement.

The mission will aim to determine whether banned munitions were used, but will not assign blame. Doctors and witnesses have said victims showed symptoms of poisoning, possibly by a nerve agent, and reported the smell of chlorine gas.

The Assad government and Russia both urged the OPCW to investigate the allegations of chemical weapons use in Douma, a move apparently aimed at averting any U.S.-led action.

“Syria is keen on cooperating with the OPCW to uncover the truth behind the allegations that some Western sides have been advertising to justify their aggressive intentions,” Syria’s state news agency SANA said.

Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Bogdanov said there was no threat of the situation in Syria resulting in a military clash between Russia and the United States. TASS news agency quoted him as saying he believed common sense would prevail.

Any U.S. strike is likely to involve naval assets, given the risk to aircraft from Russian and Syrian air defense systems. A U.S. Navy guided-missile destroyer, the USS Donald Cook, is in the Mediterranean.

French President Emmanuel Macron said on Tuesday that any strikes would not target the Syrian government’s allies or anybody in particular, but would be aimed at the Syrian government’s chemical facilities.

Speaking alongside Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, Macron said a decision on whether to carry out military strikes would be made in the coming days after more consultations with the United States and Britain.

Last year, the United States launched strikes from two Navy destroyers against a Syrian air base.

A U.S. action similar to last year’s would likely not cause a shift in the direction of the war that has gone Assad’s way since 2015.

A European source said European governments were waiting for the OPCW to carry out its investigation and for more solid forensic evidence from the attack to emerge. Any plan by the United States and its allies to take military action was likely to be on hold until then, the source said.

Trump met at the White House with Qatari Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani. Trump gave no hints about potential U.S. action, but al-Thani told reporters, “We cannot tolerate, with a war criminal” like Assad.

The U.N. Security Council is due to vote on three draft resolutions on chemical weapons attacks in Syria on Tuesday, setting up a showdown between the United States and Russia.

The United States has requested the Security Council vote at 3 p.m. (1900 GMT) on a proposal for a new inquiry into chemical weapons in Syria. The resolution was likely to be blocked by Russia, which will put two draft resolutions on Syria of its own to a vote because it does not agree with the U.S. text, diplomats said.

“This is basically a diplomatic set-up,” said Richard Gowan, a U.N. expert at the European Council on Foreign Relations.

“Russia will inevitably veto the U.S. resolution criticizing Assad, and Washington will use this to justify military strikes,” he said. “A breakdown at the U.N. will also make it easier for France to justify strikes.”

Russian U.N. Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia accused the United States, France and Britain of stoking international tensions by engaging in a “confrontational policy” against Russia and Syria.

France said it would respond if it was proven that Assad’s forces carried out the attack.

A Russian warplane flew over a French warship at low altitude in the eastern Mediterranean this weekend, a deliberate breach of international regulations, a French naval source said on Tuesday.

The weekly magazine Le Point said the Russian plane had flown over the frigate Aquitaine and was fully armed. The Aquitaine is equipped with 16 cruise missiles and 16 surface-to-air missiles. It is currently operating off Lebanon alongside U.S. ships as part of France’s contingent fighting Islamic State militants in Syria and Iraq.

A previous inquiry by the United Nations and the OPCW found the Syrian government used the nerve agent sarin in an attack in 2017, and had also used chlorine several times as a weapon.

Despite the international revulsion over the chemical weapons attacks, the death toll from such incidents is in the dozens, a fraction of the hundreds of thousands of combatants and civilians killed since the war began in 2011.</s>BEIRUT (AP) — The international chemical weapons watchdog said Tuesday it was sending a fact-finding mission to the Syrian town where a suspected chemical gas attack took place over the weekend, following a request from the Syrian government and its Russian backers that appeared to be aimed at averting punitive Western military action.

It was not immediately clear whether the announcement would delay or prevent a U.S. strike in Syria. President Donald Trump has vowed to respond “forcefully” to Saturday’s attack on civilians in the town of Douma, hours before rebels agreed to surrender it, and warned that Russia — or any other nation found to share responsibility — will “pay a price.”

In a statement, the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons said a fact-finding mission was “preparing to deploy to Syria shortly,” though it did not give a more precise timetable on when the inspectors would arrive.

Trump on Tuesday cancelled plans to travel to South America later this week, choosing to stay in the United States to manage the response to the events in Syria. The White House said he later spoke with British Prime Minister Theresa May and the two “agreed not to allow the use of chemical weapons to continue.”

Trump also discussed Syria with French President Emanuel Macron, who said Tuesday that France would decide in the coming days on “a strong and joint response” with the U.S. and Britain to the suspected attack.

The incident has sparked international outrage and ratcheted up tensions in the already volatile Mideast, raising the specter of possible imminent American retaliation amid Russia’s warnings against any such action, and denials that any chemical weapons attack took place.

Adding to the tensions, Iran, a strong ally of Syrian President Bashar Assad, threatened to respond to an airstrike on a Syrian military base on Monday that the Syrian government, Russia and Iran have blamed on Israel.

Seven Iranians were among the estimated 14 people killed in the missile strike, and a senior Iranian official visiting Damascus said the attack “will not remain unanswered.” Ali Akbar Velayati, an aide to Iran’s supreme leader, spoke upon arrival in the Syrian capital on Tuesday.

The Syrian air base was struck by missiles a little more than 24 hours after the alleged chemical attack. Israel does not typically comment on its operations in Syria, and it is unclear whether the missile attack was linked to the alleged use of chemical weapons.

Iran is one of Assad’s strongest backers and has sent thousands of troops and allied militiamen to support his forces.

Syrian government forces were on high alert and taking precautionary measures Tuesday at military positions across the country amid fears of a U.S. strike in the aftermath of the attack near Damascus.

The United States, meanwhile, called for a vote on a U.N. resolution that would condemn the continuing use of chemical weapons in Syria “in the strongest terms” and establish a new body to determine responsibility for chemical attacks, U.N. Security Council diplomats said.

Russia’s U.N. ambassador, Vassily Nebenzia, told reporters late Monday the U.S. draft resolution “contains some unacceptable elements which may make it even worse,” a strong indication that a Russian veto is likely.

Chemical weapons attacks have killed hundreds of people since the start of Syria’s conflict, with the U.N. blaming four attacks on the Syrian government and a fifth on the Islamic State group.

The OPCW, in its statement, said its technical Secretariat has asked the Syrian government to make the necessary arrangements for the deployment of a fact-finding mission. The group is the implementing body for the Chemical Weapons Convention of 1997, which has been signed by 192 member states.

Syria became a member in 2013 as part of a deal brokered by the U.S. and Russia after a chemical attack in eastern Ghouta killed hundreds of people. That attack was widely blamed on government forces, who denied responsibility.

Syrian opposition activists and paramedics said more than 40 people were killed in last weekend’s suspected chemical attack and blamed the government. The Syrian government and its Russian backers strongly deny the allegations, and questioned whether a chemical weapons attack even took place.

U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said Tuesday he was outraged by the reported attack, and that the use of chemical weapons would be a violation of international law. He also reaffirmed his support for an OPCW investigation.

A senior Russian lawmaker said Tuesday that Moscow is willing to help arrange an OPCW visit to the site of the suspected attack. Yevgeny Serberennikov, from the defense committee at the Federation Council, told the RIA Novosti news agency that Russia is eager for the OPCW to “finally start carrying out the functions it was created for.”

Thousands of opposition fighters, along with tens of thousands of civilians, are still in Douma. The rebels agreed to surrender the town to government forces after the suspected gas attack, and have been evacuating in batches to rebel-held areas in the north. Russian military police have since entered parts of the town.

Asked in Berlin about the Russian proposal that OPCW experts visit Douma, German Chancellor Angela Merkel responded unenthusiastically, saying that “the evidence that chemical weapons were used there is very, very clear.”

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said that Syrian government troops were on a 72-hour alert and were fortifying their positions. The Observatory’s chief, Rami Abdurrahman, said the alert includes all army positions and bases from the southern province of Sweida all the way to Aleppo province in the north, the Mediterranean coast in the west to Deir el-Zour province in the east, along the Iraqi border.

The Sound and Picture Organization, an activist collective in eastern Syria, said that Iranian fighters and members of Lebanon’s Hezbollah group had evacuated their positions in the Boukamal area, near the Iraqi border, which was recently retaken from the Islamic State group.</s>For the past few months, Syrian forces have been trying to take control of Eastern Ghouta, an opposition-controlled city outside the capital of Damascus that is densely populated.

The fighting has been fierce, but the forces of President Bashar al-Assad have made huge advances against rebel forces. All that was left of the opposition-controlled territory in Eastern Ghouta was a small district called Douma.

Over the weekend, Syrian regime forces decided to finish the job by conducting an attack using chemical weapons in Douma.

According to media reports, 42 people were killed and more than 300 were wounded — many of the victims being children. The video footage emerging from the attack is heartbreaking. Of course, Russia denied that chemical weapons were used.

Soon after the attack, the opposition fighters in Douma agreed to a cease-fire in exchange for safe passage to other opposition-controlled territory in Syria. The capture of Eastern Ghouta marks the biggest military victory for Assad since he captured Aleppo in 2016.

On twitter, President Donald Trump called out Russia and Iran’s complicity in the Douma chemical weapons attack and suggested there would be a “big price” to pay.

Adding confusion to the situation, the Israeli air force conducted a limited airstrike against Syria’s T4 air base near the city of Homs during the early hours of April 9. T4 air base is home to Iranian, Hezbollah, and Russian forces.

It is not clear what Israel’s motive was, but this is the second time in a year that Israel has attacked this particular air base. It is reported that Iranians were killed in the strike, but no Russians.

While the Pentagon denied U.S. involvement in the Israeli strike, a quick response to the chemical attack is expected from the U.S.

Unlike his dithering predecessor, Trump has proven to be decisive on issues regarding Assad’s chemical weapons.

On April 4, 2017, Assad killed 100 people and wounded hundreds more using chemical weapons in Khan Shaykhun, a town in northeastern Syria. Only three days later, the Trump administration launched a blistering cruise missile attack on Shayrat Airbase — the location from where the chemical weapons attack had originated.

There is little doubt that U.S. military planners are preparing new options for the president to approve.

Like last year’s strike, the U.S. military response against the Assad regime must be punitive, decisive, and directly linked to the illegal use of chemical weapons against civilians. Every effort must be made to degrade Syria’s ability to launch similar chemical weapons attacks in the future. A message must be sent that there is a high price to pay for the use of illegal chemical weapons, especially against civilians.

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Unlike last year’s strike, though, the U.S. should lead an international effort this time. It is not right that the international community voices concern about the illegal use of chemical weapons but then stands merely as a bystander when it is time to act.

A joint international response will send an important international message while also allowing the burden of response to be shared.

The United Kingdom, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Turkey, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, and Qatar all operate some variant of cruise missiles, for example. The Arab world in particular should take more responsibility for its region and work alongside the U.S. during any punitive strike against Syria.

The Europeans need to step up to the plate, too.

French President Emmanuel Macron and Trump agreed over the weekend to a “strong, joint response.” In the past, Macron had declared Syria’s use of chemical weapons a “red line.”

The U.K. is still haunted by the 2013 vote in the House of Commons that barred a strike on Assad after the infamous chemical weapons attack in Ghouta. But since 2013, the public mood has changed. Prime Minister Theresa May should lead an international effort against the use of chemical weapons in Syria with the same vigor she has displayed in condemning the recent use of chemical weapons in Salisbury.

This latest attack makes yet another mockery of the Obama administration’s claim that Syria got rid of all its chemical weapons in 2013.

In 2014, then-Secretary of State John Kerry boasted that in Syria, “we struck a deal where we got 100 percent of the chemical weapons out.”

Regrettably, President Barack Obama’s naiveté, combined with his failure to enforce his own red line in 2013 over the use of chemical weapons, planted the seed for this most recent attack.

As with much of the Obama administration’s foreign policy, the Trump administration is left picking up the pieces. This chemical weapons attack in Douma is merely the latest example. Tragically, it is unlikely to be the last.

Luke Coffey oversees research on nations stretching from South America to the Middle East as director of the Allison Center for Foreign Policy Studies at The Heritage Foundation.

A version of this article previously appeared on The Daily Signal website under the headline, “Chemical Attack in Syria Demands Stiff Response from US, Allies.”

The views expressed in this opinion article are solely those of their author and are not necessarily either shared or endorsed by the owners of this website.

What do you think? Scroll down to comment below.</s>President Donald Trump speaks during a meeting with the Emir of Qatar Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani in the Oval Office of the White House, Tuesday, April 10, 2018.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Defying Russian warnings against U.S. military strikes in Syria, President Donald Trump said Wednesday that missiles "will be coming" in response to Syria's suspected chemical attack that killed at least 40 people.

"Russia vows to shoot down any and all missiles fired at Syria," Trump tweeted. "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 did not detail what a strike would look like, or whether these would be U.S. missiles. U.S. officials have been consulting with global allies on a possible joint military response to Syria's alleged poison gas attack. Trump canceled a foreign trip in order to manage a crisis that is testing his vow to stand up to Syrian President Bashar Assad.

Syria's Foreign Ministry said Wednesday that his threats are "reckless" and endanger international peace and security.

Trump's tweet also drew a quick response from Russia's Foreign Ministry. Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said on Facebook that "smart" missiles would destroy any evidence of a chemical weapons attack.

The term "smart" missile dates to the introduction decades ago of weapons with advanced guidance systems — for example, using GPS — to achieve greater precision in targeting. The term was meant to contrast with "dumb" bombs lacking such technology. Virtually all U.S. missiles now have advanced guidance systems.

Russian lawmakers have warned the United States that Moscow would view an airstrike on Syria as a war crime and that it could trigger a direct military clash between the two former Cold War adversaries. Russia's ambassador to Lebanon said any missiles fired at Syria would be shot down and the launching sites targeted — a stark warning of a potential major confrontation.

Shortly after warning that missiles were coming, Trump tweeted that the U.S. "relationship with Russia is worse now than it has ever been, and that includes the Cold War." Then, striking a more conciliatory tone, he said: "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?"

Trump's administration has sought to show toughness on Russia, with a series of economic and diplomatic actions, including new sanctions last week against government officials and oligarchs. Trump has largely avoided criticizing Russian President Vladimir Putin by name, though he singled him out in a tweet over the weekend for supporting Assad.

In the past, Trump has condemned others for forecasting military plans, repeatedly blistering President Barack Obama during the 2016 election campaign. During one speech, he said, "We must as a nation be more unpredictable. We are totally predictable. We tell everything. We're sending troops. We tell them. We're sending something else. We have a news conference. We have to be unpredictable."

The U.S., France and Britain have been in extensive consultations about launching a military strike as early as the end of this week, U.S. officials have said. 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.

French President Emmanuel Macron said his nation, the U.S. and Britain will decide how to respond. He called for a "strong and joint response" to the attack in the Syrian town of Douma on Saturday, which Syrian activists and rescuers say killed at least 40 people. The Syrian government denies responsibility.

The French president does not need parliamentary permission to launch a military operation. France is already involved in the U.S.-led coalition created in 2014 to fight the Islamic State group in Syria and Iraq. Multiple IS terror attacks have targeted France, including one last month.

Trump suggested Monday he had little doubt that Syrian government forces were to blame for what he said was a chemical attack, but neither he nor other administration officials have produced hard evidence. This is in contrast to an incident one year ago in which U.S. intelligence agencies had video and other evidence of certain aspects of the actual attack, which involved the use of sarin gas. Trump responded then by launching Navy cruise missiles at a Syrian airfield.

One official said the U.S., France and Britain were considering military options that would be more extensive than the punitive, one-day strike last April. The three countries are discussing a range of options, including preventing Assad from conducting future attacks by striking military capabilities involved in carrying out such attack, the official said.

That official was not authorized to speak publicly and commented only on condition of anonymity.

Macron, asked whether France would take military action, said his country would continue discussing technical and strategic information with U.S. and British allies and "in the coming days we will announce our decision." He said any action would "target chemical weapons" stocks. Under a 2013 agreement for which Russia was a guarantor, Syria was to have eliminated all its chemical weapons, but it has used chlorine and perhaps other chemicals since then.

Trump spoke by phone with British Prime Minister Theresa May. A British government statement said the two agreed the attack in Syria was "utterly reprehensible" and the international community must respond "to uphold the worldwide prohibition on the use of chemical weapons." Trump met at the White House with the emir of Qatar, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, who told reporters that he and Trump "see eye to eye" on Syria.

Qatar hosts the United States' main air operations center for the Middle East, which would coordinate any American air attack in Syria.

A watchdog agency, the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, announced that it would "shortly" send a fact-finding mission to Douma, after receiving a request from the Syrian government and its Russian backers to investigate the allegations. It was not immediately clear whether that visit might affect any U.S. or allied military action.

The Russian military, which has troops in Syria, said on Monday that its officers had visited the site of the alleged attack and found no evidence to back up reports of poison gas being used.</s>Asian stocks came under pressure on Thursday as the threat of imminent U.S. military action in Syria rattled investors and sent oil prices to their highest levels since late 2014 on concerns about supply.

TOKYO: Asian stocks came under pressure on Thursday as the threat of imminent U.S. military action in Syria rattled investors and sent oil prices to their highest levels since late 2014 on concerns about supply.

MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan slipped 0.05 percent in early trade while Japan's Nikkei dropped 0.4 percent.

On Wednesday, the S&P 500 lost 0.55 percent and the Nasdaq Composite dropped 0.36 percent while energy shares gained more than 1 percent on rising oil prices.

Trump declared that missiles "will be coming" in Syria, taunting Russia for supporting Syrian President Bashar al-Assad after a suspected chemical attack on rebels. Damascus and Moscow have denied any responsibility.

His comments raised the prospect of direct conflict over Syria for the first time between the two world powers backing opposing sides in the seven-year-old civil war, which has also escalated a rivalry between Saudi Arabia and Iran.

"Last year Russia and Syria did not shoot back against U.S. missiles. But this time the scale of possible attacks by the U.S. and possibly its allies seems larger. If Russia fires back, the war front will be bigger," said Hidenori Suezawa, financial market analyst at SMBC Nikko Securities.

"I don't think we are heading into the World War Three but should there be a direct collision between the U.S. and Russia for the first time, that's the sort of headline that would plunge stock prices," he added.

The tension intensified in another front as Saudi Arabia said its air defense forces intercepted three ballistic missiles fired at Riyadh and other cities by Yemen's Houthis.

Fears of military conflicts in the Middle East have boosted oil prices as well as safe-haven assets such as gold.

Both U.S. crude and global benchmark Brent traded at the highest levels since 2014 as geopolitical concerns overshadowed a surprise buildup in U.S. crude inventories.

U.S. crude futures traded at US$66.79 a barrel, having risen 7.6 percent so far this week. They have traded as high as US$67.45 on Wednesday, a level last seen in December 2014.

Brent traded at US$71.93 a barrel, having touched a high of US$73.09 on Wednesday.

Gold stood at US$1,353.10 per ounce, having climbed to US$1,365.30. A break above its Jan. 25 high of US$1,365.8 would take the yellow metal to a high last seen in August 2016.

In the currency markets, the yen was helped by the risk averse mood.

The dollar eased to 106.82 yen , having lost momentum after hitting a five-week high of 107.49 a week ago.

The euro traded at US$1.2370, having risen for a fourth day in a row on Wednesday. Still, the currency has mostly been in a holding pattern since late January.

The Russian rouble steadied on Wednesday after two days of heavy selling due to worries about the Syrian conflict and new punitive sanctions by the United States.

It closed around 62.59 to the dollar , still down more than 7 percent so far this week.

The Turkish lira traded at 4.1383 per dollar after hitting a record low of 4.1944 on Wednesday.
Representatives of Russia and Israel meet in Moscow to discuss the Middle East, particularly recent developments in Syria and Gaza.