Rinkēvičs: Syria strike was an adequate reaction

Take note – story published 6 years ago

The US strike against Syrian forces on April 7 was an adequate decision, said Foreign Minister Edgars Rinkēvičs appearing on LTV.

The use of chemical weapons is absolutely unacceptable, and furthermore it violates the 2013 treaty over removing chemical weapons from Syria, he said.

"Thus the last course of action remains," said Rinkēvičs.

"There was no other alternative, other than if we'd condemn what happened on the strongest possible terms and afterwards pretend nothing happened," he said.

Asked about this bringing about a possible freeze in Russia-US relations, Rinkēvičs said that the current situation in Syria is, on a large degree, Russia's fault too.

"Starting from 2011 when civil war erupted in Syria [..] Russia and China blocked any attempts to solve this problem at the UN Security Council," he said, adding that Russia unilaterally deployed its forces to the war-torn country.

"There is no good solution left in this situation," he said, however urging the involved parties to pursue diplomatic options. 

On Thursday US President Donald Trump ordered a targeted military strike on Syria's Al Shayrat air base from which a chemical weapons attack had been carried out Tuesday.

A total 59 Tomahawk missiles were fired from two US Navy destroyers in the Mediterranean.

 

Seen a mistake?

Select text and press Ctrl+Enter to send a suggested correction to the editor

Select text and press Report a mistake to send a suggested correction to the editor

Related articles

More

Most important