After seven years of murderous conflict, Syria is now the battlefield for a multitude of conflicts, some intertwined, some entirely unrelated and with their own logic, driven by a cast of regional and world powers each with their own agenda. The overnight airstrikes only serve to sharpen their rivalry. Here are the key players:

Syrian president Bashar al-Assad is increasingly confident of his survival in office, shored up and propelled forward by his Russian and Iranian backers. His aim is to consolidate his position in the west of the country, eliminating the last pockets of resistance, and then expand his control eastwards. Use of chemical weapons appears to reflect a desire to achieve this at minimal cost by spreading terror. Denying Assad that weapon with airstrikes may slow him down but is unlikely to threaten his grip.

For Vladimir Putin, the struggle in Syria is emblematic of the central theme of his rule, the restoration of Russia as a great power, whose views and interests in the Middle East and beyond have to be taken into account. Helping the Assad regime to prevail is an all-or-nothing proposition, a test of strength with the west and the ground on which the spread of western-inspired regime change is finally repulsed. The airstrikes are a humiliation, especially after Russian officials threatened to shoot down incoming missiles and planes, but it is one that has to be swallowed. Putin is well aware of the dangers of head-on confrontation with the US and its allies.

Iran sees in Syria as an essential buffer zone. The fall of Assad and the rise of a Sunni regime would be a strategic nightmare for them. But Tehran, and the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps, also see Syria as a bridge to Hezbollah, their client militia in Lebanon that has done much of the heavy fighting in Syria. That puts Tehran in a position to pose a serious threat against Israel, which serves as insurance from Israeli attack. Despite posturing from Tehran, it is not looking for a confrontation with the US, and as long as airstrikes are directed only at chemical facilities, it will let them pass without response.

Iran’s gain in Syria is very much Israel’s loss. Israel is determined to disrupt Iranian lines of communication, control and supply to Hezbollah and keep Iranian-run militias well back from the line of separation at the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights. It prefers the US and Russia to restrain the Iranians, but if necessary Israel is likely to plunge in to southern Syria to confront the Iranians and create a buffer zone. It will want to draw in the US on its side in a wider role than counter-proliferation and counter-terrorsim.

The mantra of the Trump administration is that it is only in Syria to fight Isis. Policing the use of chemical weapons with airstrikes is portrayed as an exceptional responsibility, driven by a national interest in non-proliferation. Trump has cut off the Obama policy of half-hearted and intermittent backing for rebel groups seen as moderate. But the Trump White House is also drawn by the desire to contain Iran, and that may yet pull the US deeper still into the battlefield. That is something that defence secretary James Mattis resisted in the latest wave of airstrikes but he may not prevail in the future.

The UK sees its role as a partner in the anti-Isis coalition and sees its participation in strikes as an international non-proliferation responsibility, and part of the price of being a permanent member of the UN security council. London is also highly aware that the refusal to take part in planned punitive strikes in 2013 after an earlier chemical weapons attack weakened its relationship with Washington.

Emmanuel Macron has taken a particularly strong line on punishing chemical weapons use, and like the UK, France sees participation in such strikes as part of the burden of retaining its major power status, by policing non-proliferation norms. Paris also sees the anti-Isis fight as being a national security imperative, given that it has been one of Isis’s principal targets.

Recep Tayyip Erdogan was initially one of the most vociferous advocates of regime change in Damascus, but now finds himself seeking accommodation with the regime and its backers to break up the Kurdish hold of the territory along the Turkish-Syrian border. His expeditionary “Olive Branch” incursion into Kurdish held territory, however, risks confrontation with the Americans, who see the Kurds as their most effective partner against Isis.</s>As we reported on Friday evening, the joint attack on Syrian targets by American, British, and French forces ended as quickly as it started. The attack was in retaliation for the attack on April 7 by Syria’s president Bashar al-Assad on civilians in Douma, using chemical weapons.

The attack occurred at 4 a.m. Syrian time and was over in minutes. 105 missiles were launched, striking three Syrian chemical weapons targets. The military said that all missiles reached their target, and denied Syrian claims that most (or any) were shot down.

The attack was “one and done,” according to Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis. However, Mattis and other U.S. officials have stated clearly that another attack will follow if al-Assad uses chemical weapons again.

So America’s message to Bashar al-Assad is pretty clear: “You may use barrel bombs, missiles, gunfire, and any other conventional weapons on neighborhoods, markets, schools, and hospitals, and you may massacre and kill as many women and children as you want, with no retribution. Just don’t use chemical weapons.”

The targets and time of day of Saturday morning’s attack were carefully chosen so as to avoid civilian casualties, particularly Russian casualties. The Russian military did not respond, and it was clear that both the U.S. and Russian side did everything possible to avoid confronting each other.

However, the language used by Russia on Saturday was extremely bitter and angry. And according to Pentagon spokesman Dana White,

As someone who is attacked constantly by Russian trolls, this is disheartening news.

The invocation of international law by Russia is really laughable, as Russia has done everything from invading and annexing Crimea to support the worst genocidal monster so far this century, Bashar al-Assad, without getting approval for anything from the UN Security Council, yet Russian officials become apoplectic when the U.S. or the West does anything to avoid their UNSC veto.

As I’ve been writing starting in 2011, Russia’s president Vladimir Putin adopted a policy of using the UN Security Council to take control of U.S., NATO, and Western foreign policy. Russia took any military action it pleased without getting UNSC approval but demanded that any other country got UNSC approval for everything. By using its UNSC veto, Russia could effectively control American foreign policy.

This Russian policy has been extremely successful for years, crippling not only Western foreign policy, but the UN Security Council itself. I believe that success reached its peak with the March 4 poisoning of former Russian double agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia, using a Russia-developed nerve agent Novichok. The British public was incensed that Russia put ordinary British citizens at risk by using Novichok in public, where anyone could be affected, but Russia made matters worse when Russia’s president Vladimir Putin smirked and gave a sarcastic answer when a BBC reporter asked about it.

This was followed by a series of claims by Russia, including accusing Britain of poisoning the Skripals in order to embarrass Russia. Britain’s foreign secretary Boris Johnson gave a furious response to these claims: “There is something in the kind of smug, sarcastic response that we’ve heard that indicates their fundamental guilt. They want to simultaneously deny it, yet at the same time to glory in it.”

The Skripal poisoning was an international tipping point, uniting Britain and other nations to no longer tolerate Russia’s strategy to use the UNSC to cripple Western foreign policy.

That is why Russian ambassador Vasily Nebenzya and other Russian officials are so bitterly angry. The policy they had successfully used for years is now collapsing in front of them.

Further remarks by the Russians have the appearance of hysterical desperation. There have been horrifying videos of al-Assad’s April 7 chemical attack on Douma, but Nebenzya and other Russian officials are claiming that the chemical attack did not even occur. They claim that the British government paid the “White Helmet” humanitarian workers in Douma to stage the horrifying videos as a Hollywood production. One gets the impression that the Russians as a nation are becoming completely delusional.

Meanwhile, Syrians in Damascus were dancing in the streets on Saturday, because the military strikes were not as bad as feared. Guardian (Australia) and The Hill
• U.S., France, Britain launch Syria attack in retaliation for al-Assad’s use of chemical weapons (14-Apr-2018)

I have always believed that there was plenty of legal justification for American and Western military intervention in Syria. After al-Assad began targeting peaceful protesters in 2011, and particularly after he massacred thousands of innocent women and children in a Palestinian refugee camp in Latakia in August 2011, millions of Syrian citizens began fleeing into neighboring countries, including over a million reaching Europe. Any country has a responsibility to control its own population, but al-Assad had essentially weaponized refugees. If al-Assad cannot control its own population, but instead uses them as a weapon, then any target is justified in intervening in the country.

In addition, al-Assad’s attack on the Palestinian camp caused tens of thousands of Sunni jihadists to travel from around the world to fight al-Assad. These foreign jihadists formed the so-called Islamic State (IS or ISIS or ISIL or Daesh), which has launched terror attacks on other countries. Once again, if al-Assad cannot control ISIS, then any country threatened by ISIS is justified in intervening. In fact, the U.S. military intervention in Syria has succeeded in recapturing all territory formerly occupied by ISIS, although ISIS is far from completely defeated.

So the West certainly has plenty of justifications for military intervention in Syria, but al-Assad’s use of chemical weapons doubles down on those justifications.

But in the end, the justification for this kind of military action has less to do with international law, and more to do with domestic politics. For that reason, the British government has published a humanitarian justification policy paper for Saturday’s military action. Here is a brief summary:

The Syrian regime’s use of chemical weapons is a war crime and a crime against humanity.

Under international law, the UK may use force for humanitarian intervention, provided that three conditions are met:
• Convincing evidence of extreme humanitarian distress on a large scale, requiring immediate and urgent relief;
• There is no practicable alternative to use of force, if lives are to be saved;
• The proposed use of force must be necessary and proportionate to the aim of relief of humanitarian suffering.

The policy paper goes on to explain why all three conditions have been met. BBC and UK Government

Although the debate over Saturday’s airstrikes has dominated news coverage since the April 7 chemical attack, there is a completely different parallel issue in play, which may be even more dangerous.

On Monday last week, Israel is believed to have attacked Syria’s T4 airbase (Tayfur airport), because the airbase is considered a threat to Israel. Apparently, seven Iranians were killed in the attack.

Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hasan Nasrallah says that the attack put Israel into direct combat with Iran:

According to the BBC, Syria, Iran, and Russia are all expressing quiet relief that Saturday’s missile attack was considerably more limited than was expected. But it did evoke a sense of greater defiance, with the three entities calling themselves the “Axis of Resistance,” and referring to Western powers as “paper tigers,” a phrase used by China’s Mao Zedong in the 1960s to describe the United States.

It is generally believed that Iran must retaliate for Israel’s airstrike, killing several Iranian revolutionary guards. This could be a far more dangerous confrontation than even Saturday’s missile strikes.

Longtime readers are aware that Generational Dynamics predicts that the Mideast is headed for a major regional war, pitting Jews against Arabs, Sunnis against Shias, and various ethnic groups against each other. Events appear to be moving very quickly now. Al Manar (Hezbollah) and Reuters and Al-Jazeera
• Israel braces for attack from Iran in retaliation for Sunday’s airstrike (12-Apr-2018)
• Syrian war escalates sharply, after Israel, Iran, Turkey and Russia all lose aircraft (11-Feb-2018)
• Israel and Syria have unprecedented missile clash over Jordan (19-Mar-2017)
• Syria says that Israel bombed al-Mazzeh military airport near Damascus (14-Jan-2017)
• Hezbollah building tunnels into Israel to prepare for next war (04-Jun-2016)

KEYS: Generational Dynamics, Syria, Bashar al-Assad, Russia, Iran, France, Britain, Syria, Damascus, Homs, Vasily Nebenzya, James Mattis, Nikki Haley, Dana White, Vladimir Putin, Boris Johnson, Sergei Skripal, Yulia Skripal, Novichok, Islamic State / of Iraq and Syria/Sham/the Levant, IS, ISIS, ISIL, Daesh, Sayyed Hasan Nasrallah

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 Receive daily World View columns by e-mail</s>U.S., British and French forces hammered Syria with air strikes early Saturday Syria time in response to a poison gas attack that killed dozens of people last week, in the biggest intervention by Western powers in Syria’s civil war. U.S. President Donald Trump announced the military action from the White House late on Friday. As he spoke, explosions rocked Damascus. Trump said he was prepared to sustain the response until the government of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad stopped its use of chemical weapons. The intervention was the biggest strike by Western powers against Assad in the country’s seven-year-old civil war and pitted the United States and its allies against Russia, which itself intervened in the war in 2015 to back Assad.

“A short time ago, I ordered the United States Armed Forces to launch precision strikes on targets associated with the chemical weapons capabilities of Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad,” Trump said in a televised address from the White House. A U.S. official told Reuters the strikes were aimed at multiple targets and involved Tomahawk cruise missiles. At least six loud explosions were heard in Damascus in the early hours of Saturday and smoke was seen rising over the Syrian capital, a Reuters witness said. A second witness said the Barzah district of Damascus had been hit in the strikes. Barzah is the location of a major Syrian scientific research center. Speaking of Assad and his suspected role in last week’s chemical weapons attack, Trump said, “These are not the actions of a man. They are crimes of a monster instead.” “The purpose of our actions tonight is to establish a strong deterrent against the production, spread and use of chemical weapons,” Trump said.

The U.S. president had sharply critical words for both Russia and Iran, which have backed Assad’s government. “To Iran and to Russia, I ask, what kind of a nation wants to be associated with the mass murder of innocent men, women and children?” Trump said. British Prime Minister Theresa May said she had authorized British armed forces “to conduct co-ordinated and targeted strikes to degrade the Syrian regime’s chemical weapons capability.” She described it as a “limited and targeted strike” aimed at minimizing civilian casualties. The military action is not about intervening in Syria’s civil war or changing its government, she said.</s>The base was in the Jabal Azzan region south of Aleppo, a Syrian government-controlled rural region. People claimed to have seen explosions at the site and there are unconfirmed reports of casualties. Syrian media reported it was attacked by Israeli aircraft this evening. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britain-based war monitor, reported the blast but said the cause was unknown.

Media linked to Hezbollah later claimed there had been no airstrike, blaming explosives detonating in a warehouse. Last week, Russia blamed Israel for an attack on a Syrian airbase that killed at least 12 people. Moscow claimed morning that two Israeli fighter jets had launched the attack on the T4 base. The Russian Defence Ministry said the F-15 planes had carried out the strikes from Lebanese air space. And it claimed Syrian air defence systems had shot down five of eight missiles fired.

The Israeli military made no comment on the claims. It comes after forces from the US, UK and France launched a series of strikes against alleged chemical weapons facilities in the country overnight. The western powers said on Saturday their missile attacks struck at the heart of Syria's chemical weapons programme. The United States, France and Britain launched 105 missiles overnight in retaliation for a suspected poison gas attack in Syria a week ago, targeting what the Pentagon said were three chemical weapons facilities including a research and development in Damascus' Barzeh district and two installations near Homs. The bombing was the biggest intervention by Western countries against Assad and his superpower ally Russia, but the three countries said the strikes were limited to Syria's chemical weapons capabilities and not aimed at toppling Assad or intervening in the civil war.</s>A team of inspectors from the international chemical weapons watchdog was en route to Syria on Friday to begin an investigation into a suspected chemical weapons attack near the capital that has brought the war-torn country to the brink of a wider conflict, amid Western threats of retaliation and Russian warnings of the potential for "a dangerous escalation."

The fact-finding mission from the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons was expected to head to Douma, where Russia said rebels had now capitulated to government control. The Syrian government said it would facilitate the mission's investigation, which was to begin Saturday.

Syria and its ally, Russia, deny any such attack, which activists say killed more than 43 people last weekend.

Speaking at the United Nations on Thursday, Russia's UN ambassador, Vassily Nebenzia, said the top priority had to be to avert a wider war, and didn't rule out the possibility of a U.S.-Russia conflict.

Speaking to reporters after a closed emergency meeting of the UN Security Council, Nebenzia said Russia was concerned with "the dangerous escalation" of the situation, and "aggressive policies" and preparations that some governments were making — a clear reference to the U.S. and the Trump administration and allies.

"We hope that there will be no point of no return — that the U.S. and their allies will refrain from military action against a sovereign state," Nebenzia said.

He said "the danger of escalation is higher than simply Syria."

The Security Council scheduled another emergency meeting for Friday morning at Russia's request.

The imminent arrival of the chemical weapons inspectors came as rebels in Douma surrendered their weapons and left the town for opposition-held areas in the north. Russia's military said Thursday that Douma was now under full control of the Syrian government in the wake of a Russian-mediated deal secured the evacuation of the rebels and thousands of civilians after it was recaptured by Syrian forces.

Douma and the sprawling eastern Ghouta region near the capital of Damascus had been under rebel control since 2012 and was a thorn in the side of President Bashar al-Assad's government, threatening his seat of power with missiles and potential advances for years. The government's capture of Douma, the last town held by the rebels in eastern Ghouta, marked a major victory for Assad.

Residents in Damascus, who had lived on edge for years because of mortar shells lobbed from eastern Ghouta, celebrated the news. Vehicles carrying Syrian flags were seen driving from Damascus into Douma, chanting in support of the government.

"This is a victory for Syria and the allies of Syria," declared Abboud Mardini, a 38-year old merchant in Damascus. "Eastern Ghouta was the main source of ... terrorists who from there spread throughout Syria."

There was no official government announcement that Douma had been recaptured and no indication Syrian forces had yet entered the town, where Russian military police were deployed to preserve the peace after an evacuation fraught with difficulties. A single government flag was raised, a war monitoring group said.

Hamza Bayraqdar, spokesperson for Jaysh al-Islam, the main rebel group that once controlled Douma, said his fighters had all evacuated from the area. They handed over their heavy and medium weapons, as well as maps of land mines and the tunnels they dug, according to Syrian state media.

Douma and the rest of eastern Ghouta had been a significant rebel stronghold throughout Syria's civil war, and its surrender came after years of siege by Assad's troops and a months-long military offensive. It followed weeks of negotiations mediated by Russia that repeatedly were derailed. A truce collapsed last week and the Syrian government pressed ahead with its military offensive.

Then came the suspected chemical attack in Douma, followed by international condemnation and threats of military action.

Amid conflicting tweets about the timing of any retaliation, U.S. President Donald Trump said Thursday an attack on Syria could take place "very soon or not so soon at all." On Capitol Hill, U.S. Defence Secretary Jim Mattis said the National Security Council met Thursday to present Trump with various options, and that he could not talk about any military plans because an attack "is not yet in the offing."

Also Thursday, the British cabinet gave Prime Minister Theresa May the green light to work with the U.S. and France "to co-ordinate an international response," though it gave no indication of the timing or scale of any action.

French President Emmanuel Macron said his government had proof that the Syrian government had launched chlorine gas attacks in recent days. He said his government would not tolerate "regimes that think everything is permitted," though he stopped short of saying whether France was planning military action.

In response to the threats, Assad said Thursday that a potential retaliation would be based on "lies" and would seek to undermine his forces' recent advances near Damascus. Western threats endanger international peace and security, Assad said, and military action would only contribute to the "further destabilization" of the region.

After the back-and-forth from Washington, Moscow and European Union capitals, residents in Damascus appeared to have brushed off the threat of an imminent attack.

The streets of Damascus were packed Thursday with people headed to the main market, cafés and restaurants.

At Nabil Nafiseh, one of Damascus's most famous sweets shops, men, women and children sat outdoors enjoying the evening breeze and nibbling on Arab sweets.

Real estate agent Ahmad Abdul-Rahman said he had brought his wife and three sons from his hometown of Aleppo, where there are no significant military targets, to Damascus to be together in case of an attack.

"I came here to defy the dogs who are threatening Syria," the 43-year-old said. "We don't care about America nor America's strike and we don't care about America's allies. We were not scared in Aleppo and we are not scared in Damascus."

Rafah al-Okda, a 21-year-old nursing student at Damascus University, said she had not changed her routine following the threats.

"Syria is a strong country, but our allies Russia and Iran make us stronger," she said.

Ahmad al-Issa, 46, ruled out a U.S. airstrike, saying Trump has in the past threatened to wipe North Korea off the map, then ended up calling for a meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un.

"Even if he [Trump] fires what he calls smart bombs, at us, they will be stupid bombs because they will backfire on him and Syrians will be stronger," al-Issa said.</s>Somewhere, deep in his concrete labyrinth, Bashar al-Assad is smiling today. Syria’s dictator gambled that he could use chemical weapons to seal a victory in an offensive just outside his country’s capital, and that he and his regime could survive whatever international response such action drew. And he was right.

Any civilized person should feel some satisfaction knowing that a leader as murderous as Assad is being punished for his crimes. If you harbor any doubts about Assad’s villainy, take a minute to watch one of the videos of the scene last Saturday in Douma, a suburb of Damascus, after it came under chemical attack. American and Syrian-rebel assertions about who perpetrated the attack are convincing: the chemical weapons, possibly a nerve agent such as VX or sarin, were delivered in large canisters that also contained chlorine gas—those canisters appear to be far too large to have been delivered by anything but an airplane or helicopter, the kind of hardware no rebel group is known to possess. If you’re still skeptical, your only outlet is the realm of conspiracy theory.

There has been plenty of speculation, too, about President Trump’s motives in attacking Syria, but what matters here are the results. Assad deserves whatever he gets, and if the strikes ordered by President Trump have the effect of deterring even one other chemical-weapons attack, then we should all be glad.

The trouble is, Assad deserves much worse, and he’s not going to get it—not from the United States, nor from the West more generally. U.S. forces could have inflicted much greater damage—Trump could have ordered the killing of Assad and everyone around him if he had wanted to. I’m confident that neither Trump nor any of his senior military advisers have any love for Assad. But, in testimony last week, Defense Secretary James Mattis said he was worried that American military action in Syria, if it went too far, could start a wider war, principally with Assad’s chief patron, Russia.

Earlier this week, after Trump tweeted his intention to strike Syria, Assad began parking his warplanes on Russian bases, no doubt because he wagered that Trump would refrain from striking them there. It’s not that Putin has any special feelings for Assad. But having moved into the Middle East power vacuum created by American inaction in Syria, Putin will fight tenaciously to preserve his foothold in the region. In February, American and Russian forces became entangled—the Russians lost that round—but it seems clear that American commanders don’t want to do anything in Syria that would provoke Putin.

There’s another dynamic at work here, too. The Americans clearly don’t want to do anything that could prompt Assad’s sudden downfall, either. The fear, in the White House and among military commanders, is that a sudden collapse of Assad’s regime would open a vacuum in the country and that it would be filled, Baghdad-style, by chaos or, worse, by jihadis, who would probably embark on a massacre of the Alawite minority to which Assad belongs. What would the United States do then?

Assad knows this, of course. His strategy in recent years has been clear: let the Americans and other Western countries focus on destroying ISIS, his main enemy, and don’t make the outside world too angry. All of his escalations have been calculated and gradual, even his use of chemical weapons. In the present case, Assad’s forces were moving into a rebel-held area called Douma, just outside Damascus. (Douma is located in Eastern Ghouta, the site of a horrific chemical-weapons attack in 2013. That attack prompted President Barack Obama to strike a deal with Assad to surrender all of his chemical weapons. That deal now looks like an American humiliation.)

Assad’s position has been strengthened greatly by the American-led destruction of ISIS—he ought to thank Trump for that—and lately he’s been trying to consolidate the long strip of cities and towns he holds between the Mediterranean, Aleppo, and Damascus. Eastern Ghouta—and Douma more specifically—represents one of the last rebel-held areas around the capital. Douma used to be home to about four hundred thousand people; when Assad’s latest offensive began, its population was about a quarter of that. Still, Assad’s ground forces, even with the assistance of Hezbollah and Iranian Revolutionary Guards, are extremely depleted, and they could have anticipated a very hard fight in Douma. “It would have been a meat grinder,’’ Jennifer Cafarella, an analyst at the Institute for the Study of War, in Washington, said.

That’s where the chemical weapons come in. They’re lethal and efficient. And they did what they were intended to do. The offensive against Douma is proceeding, with Assad offering the rebels and residents there a choice of evacuation by bus, or probably death or imprisonment if they stay. It’s not a pretty picture.

The wider point is that the latest missile strikes may deter Assad from using chemical weapons again in the near term. And that’s good. But this action is not likely to alter the course of the war or even, most likely, Assad’s calculations about using such weapons again. After all, they’ve worked before.</s>Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu coupled praise for US-led strikes on Syrian targets on Saturday with a warning that Iran’s presence there further endangers Syria.

“Early this morning, under American leadership, the United States, France and the United Kingdom demonstrated that their commitment is not limited to proclamations of principle,” Netanyahu said in a written statement.

Netanyahu said Syrian president Bashar al-Assad must understand that “his provision of a forward base for Iran and its proxies endangers Syria”.

An Israeli official said Israel was notified of the strikes ahead of time. Asked how much warning Israel had received, the official told Reuters: “Between 12 and 24 hours, I believe.”

Asked whether Israel helped choose targets, the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said: “Not to my knowledge.”

A US embassy spokeswoman confirmed to Reuters that Israel had been notified before the strikes, but she provided no further details.

Iran’s involvement in Syria in support of Assad has alarmed Israel, which has said it will counter any threat. The armed Iranian-backed Shi’ite movement Hezbollah, which has an extensive missile arsenal, last fought a war with Israel in 2006.

Syria, Iran and Russia say Israel was behind an air strike on a Syrian air base on Monday that killed seven Iranian military personnel, something Israel has neither confirmed nor denied.

On Wednesday, Russian President Vladimir Putin spoke to Netanyahu and urged him to do nothing to destabilise Syria, according to a Kremlin statement.

Netanyahu said Israel would not allow Iran to establish itself in Syria, according to his office.

Israel has mounted air strikes in Syria on a regular basis, targeting suspected weapons shipments to Lebanese Hezbollah</s>Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned Sunday over Iran’s presence in Syria after Western strikes in response to the alleged use of chemical weapons and a recent attack attributed to Israel.

Netanyahu also called on Western powers to take the same approach toward preventing “terrorist states” from acquiring nuclear weapons, referring to Israel’s main enemy Iran.

The premier said he spoke with British Prime Minister Theresa May on Saturday night following the joint strikes by the United States, France and Britain in neighbouring Syria.

The narrowly targeted pre-dawn military operation on Saturday took aim at three alleged chemical weapons facilities. Netanyahu had previously expressed his “total support” for the strikes.

“The important international message that came from the attack was zero tolerance for the use of non-conventional weapons,” Netanyahu said at the start of a cabinet meeting, describing his discussion with May.

“I added that this policy needs to also be expressed in preventing terrorist states and groups from having nuclear abilities.”

Netanyahu also again warned over Iran’s presence in Syria after previously pledging not to allow the country to entrench itself militarily next door.

On April 9, seven Iranian personnel were among 14 people killed in an early-morning strike on the T-4 airbase in Syria, with regime allies Iran and Russia blaming Israel for the attack.

Israel has neither confirmed nor denied responsibility.

Netanyahu said he told May that Syrian President Bashar al-Assad “must understand that when he allows Iran and its proxies to establish a military presence in his country, he endangers Syria as well as the stability of the region”.

Also on Sunday, two Israeli ministers said their country would continue to act to prevent Iran from establishing itself militarily in Syria.

Israel has sought to avoid direct involvement in Syria’s civil war, but acknowledges carrying out dozens of air strikes there to stop what it says are advanced arms deliveries to Lebanese Shiite group Hezbollah, another of its enemies.

Hezbollah, like Iran and Russia, is backing Assad in the war.

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This post was syndicated from The Guardian Nigeria Newspaper – Nigeria and World News. Click here to read the full text on the original website.</s>BEIRUT >> The Western airstrikes targeting suspected Syrian chemical weapons facilities might have rained down punishment from the sky, but they will not fundamentally degrade a war machine whose main bases, weaponry and personnel remain in place.

As a symbol, they might reflect the inability to prevent President Bashar Assad from marching toward a professed victory in the civil war — still denying he ever even used banned substances, and perhaps not even needing them.

Any opposition expectations that the airstrikes might try to destroy or degrade Assad’s lethal air power or target bases where his warplanes and helicopters begin their bombing missions were quickly dashed: The U.S., British and French precision attacks only singled out Assad’s alleged chemical weapons capabilities.

The Pentagon said the strikes targeted three facilities — a scientific research center in the Damascus area, allegedly linked to the production and testing of chemical and biological warfare technology; a chemical weapons storage facility west of Homs; and a chemical weapons equipment storage facility and key command post, also west of Homs.

“If this is it, Assad should be relieved,” Randa Slim, an expert with the Washington-based Middle East Institute, wrote on Twitter.

For Assad, it was business as usual Saturday — or so his office sought to portray it, posting a short video of him walking into work, briefcase in hand.

More pertinently, Syrian police units triumphantly entered the battered town of Douma, site of the suspected April 7 chemical weapons attack and also the last rebel-held town in the eastern Ghouta region that was once a sprawling rebel-held bastion at the doors of the capital. Thousands of hard-line rebels capitulated in Douma following years of siege and an air and ground campaign that killed hundreds in recent weeks.

The recapture of Douma effectively ends a nearly seven-year rebellion near Damascus and marks Assad’s most significant victory since his forces retook the northern city of Aleppo in late 2016. With seemingly open-ended support from allies Russia and Iran, the Syrian military will most definitely turn its attention to remaining opposition-held territory, namely in the south and the northern province of Idlib.

Assad has already consolidated control over most of Syria and its major population centers. His allies have questioned the rationale of a victor needing to resort to chemical weapons that bring global condemnation and risk punitive action.

The seemingly limited airstrikes came as a disappointment to Syria’s opposition, with one rebel spokesman labeling them a “farce.” Another senior opposition figure, Nasr Hariri, said the attacks were welcome but only reinforced the message that while it is not OK to use chemical weapons, the government can continue to “use explosive barrels and cluster bombs” with impunity.

Assad’s chemical weapons capabilities — and exactly what was hit Saturday — remain shrouded in mystery.

Despite Syria’s commitment to abolish its program in 2013, U.S. officials say it is “highly likely” that Assad kept a hidden, undisclosed stockpile. They say information gathered from recent alleged attacks also suggest Assad retained a “continued production capacity” — also banned under the 2013 deal.

The government certainly had enough advance notice. Syria war monitors said the military emptied air bases and moved equipment before the strikes.

The Pentagon said Saturday that it believes the airstrikes “attacked the heart of the Syrian chemical weapons program,” significantly degrading Syria’s ability to use such weapons again. Russian officials said the damage was minimal, maintaining that all key air bases were intact and the purported chemical weapons facilities had been abandoned long ago.

Capt. Adulsalam Abdulrazek, a former officer in Syria’s chemical program, said the overnight strikes probably hit “parts of, but not the heart” of the operation.

Speaking to The Associated Press from rebel-held northern Syria, he said they were unlikely to curb the government’s ability to produce such weapons or launch new attacks.

Abdulrazek defected from the program in 2012, when he was based in eastern Ghouta, the suburb hit by a chemical attack in 2013 and allegedly again on April 7.

He said there were an estimated 50 warehouses storing chemical weapons before the program was dismantled in 2013. He said he believes those fixed storage facilities, mostly in rural areas, are intact or only slightly dispersed, and that the program was only partly dismantled because Damascus didn’t allow inspections.

IHS Jane’s expert Karl Dewey, said the scientific research facility on the northeastern edge of Damascus is thought to have integrated chemical payloads onto artillery.

It is one of at least three sites that have been consistently referenced in association with Syria’s chemical weapons program, including Masyaf and Dummar, also known as Jamraya, both reported to have been hit by Israeli strikes last year.

Whatever the rationale for using chemical weapons, even Assad’s most persistent detractors agree he does not need them at this point in the war.

The airstrikes are unlikely to have any real impact on the outcome of the civil war, nor will they serve to bring Assad to the negotiating table to seriously discuss a political settlement, as many hoped.

“Will this deter Assad from using chemical weapons again? Possibly, not least because he’s essentially won the war anyway,” wrote Faysal Itani, resident senior fellow in the Atlantic Council’s Rafik Hariri Center for the Middle East.

“Will it change anything else? For better or worse, no.”</s>An Iranian military base in northern Syria was bombed by fighter jets with witnesses reporting loud explosions and flames, according to reports.

There were unconfirmed reports of casualties with Iranian soldiers said to be among the dead and wounded.

Some reports out of Syria claimed Israeli fighter jets had targeted the weapons depot in a government-controlled area near Aleppo. Israel has not commented on the claims.

A second base, near Deir ez-Zor in eastern Syria, and two other regime sites were also targeted, according to reports.

The reports emerged hours after US, UK and French forces fired more than 100 missiles at three sites connected to Syria's chemical weapons programme.

Media linked to the Assad regime and Hezbollah, the Iran-backed militant group which last fought a war with Israel in 2006, denied claims that the bases of Syria and its allies were targeted by Israeli missiles.

Reports claim four Syrian regime sites were targeted by warplanes. Observers were attempting to verify the reports and photos and video clips circulating on social media.

Earlier Saturday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu praised US-led air strikes on Syrian targets and warned that Iran's presence further endangers Syria.

He said Syrian president Bashar al-Assad must understand that "his provision of a forward base for Iran and its proxies endangers Syria".

Earlier this week, Syria and allies Iran and Russia blamed Israeli F-15 jets for bombing an air base with eight guided missiles launches from Lebanese territory on Monday.

The strikes targeted the T-4 base, or Tiyas Military Airbase, in Homs in central Syria, with the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights saying at least 14 people were killed.

Media in Iran said seven Iranian military personnel were among the dead.

Russia's Defence Ministry said Syrian defence units had destroyed five of the eight missiles.

Netanyahu and Russian President Vladimir Putin spoke by phone on Wednesday.

The Kremlin said Putin told Israel's prime minister to avoid military action that would "destabilise" Syria, while Netanyahu said Israel would not allow Iran to establish itself in Syria, according to his office.

The US, UK and France launched their joint bombing campaign in the early hours of Saturday in retaliation for a suspected sarin and chlorine gas attack in rebel-held territory in the city of Douma, near Damascus.

The Syrian government has been accused of gassing its own people, killing up to 75, during a bloody campaign to drive rebels out of the region.
An explosion strikes a major weapons depot linked to Hezbollah and Iran in Mount Azzan, near Aleppo, Syria. Local media and Sky News reports an unidentified jet attacked the site, possibly as part of Western coalition airstrikes in the region, but al-Mayadeen denies any airstrike happened and said controlled explosions were carried out at the site yesterday.