As it happened: Reaction to US military strikes on Syrian air base

We'll shortly be ending our live blog coverage of the reaction to the US military strikes in Syria. Here's the latest update:

• Members of Congress have questioned whether Trump had the domestic or international legal authority to take military action in Syria and whether he has any firm plan going forward.
• United States Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin says further economic sanctions aimed at Syria will be introduced in response to the chemical weapons attack believed to have been launched by the Assad regime.
• US Ambassador Nikki Haley has told the UN Security Council that the actions were "fully justified" and the US was prepared to "do more".
• Russia has reacted with anger to the strike, with PM Dmitry Medvedev saying it had "completely ruined" relations.
• The Syrian state media agency claims nine civilians, including four children, were killed in the US missile strikes.
• Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull has declared that Assad has disqualified himself from any role in a political settlement in Syria and should be placed on trial for committing war crimes.

Chinese state media have notably played down the awkward timing of the US launching an air strike on Syria as Chinese president Xi Jinping dined with Donald Trump, Fairfax Media's China correspondent Kirsty Needham writes.

"The front page of the Chinese language Global Times showed Mr Xi and Mr Trump strolling at Mar a Lago, and Mr Trump's declaration of an"outstanding relationship" with China.

The US air strike on Syria was relegated to the world news pages.The English version of the paper, known for its hawkish anti- western views at times, highlighted that Ivanka Trump's children had sung and recited Classical Chinese verse to Mr Xi and his wife.

The Chinese government has been muted in its response to the airstrikes, waiting six hours before making any public comment.Then, China's foreign ministry avoided direct criticism of the US action, but called for calm and pointedly said a political solution was urgently needed.

China's reaction is being closely watched because it holds veto power over any UN Security Council vote to sanction Syria, and in February had joined with Russia to block a UN sanction against Syria's use of chemical weapons.

This time, however, China's early response has sat in contrast to Russia, which had quickly labelled the US strikes an act ofaggression.Overnight in the United Nations Security Council, China's delegate Liu Jieyi said: "A political solution is the only way out for the Syrian issue. Military means will not work."

Any criticism by China of the US action in Syria is unlikely to come while Mr Xi was in Florida. The Chinese government had placed great importance on the Xi-Trump meeting being a success, and stabilising the relationship with the Trump administration, which had gotten off to a rocky start even before Mr Trump's inauguration."

In an editorial, The New York Times writes that it is "hard not to feel unsettled" by the many questions raised by Trump's decision to take military action in Syria.

"Among them: Was it legal? Was it an impetuous, isolated response unrelated to a larger strategy for resolving the complex dilemma of Syria, a nation tormented not just by civil war but also by the fight against the Islamic State? So far, there is no evidence that Mr. Trump has thought through the implications of using military force or figured out what to do next.

For a man who had campaigned on an "America First" platform of avoiding entanglements in overseas conflicts and who repeatedly warned his predecessor, Barack Obama, against military action in Syria, Mr. Trump made a breathtaking turnaround in the space of 63 hours after the chemical attack.

Mr. Trump explained the shift by saying that he had been so deeply moved by television footage of child victims gasping for breath that "my attitude toward Syria and Assad has changed very much." However sincere this sentiment, the spectacle of a president precipitously reversing course on war and peace on the basis of emotion or what his defenders describe as "instinct" does not inspire confidence."

You can read the full editorial here.

Malcolm Turnbull has declared that dictator ­Bashar al-Assad has disqualified himself from any role in a political settlement in Syria and should be placed on trial for his "horrendous" war crimes, Fairfax Media reporter Michael Gordon writes from Papua New Guinea.

"The Prime Minister also says the onus should now be put squarely on Russia to play the key role in forging a political solution and bringing the Syrian war to an end after President Trump's response to the use of chemical weapons.

While he conceded that the fate of Assad would be decided by the global and regional parties to any settlement, Mr Turnbull's emphatic view is that the Syrian president has to be brought to account.

"The crimes he has committed against his own people are so enormous and, of course now, so recent it is difficult to see how a political solution can be crafted that has him with a continuing role," Mr Turnbull told reporters at the Bomana War Cemetery on the outskirts of Port Moresby.

"If President Assad sought to have a continuing role after a political settlement, his criminal, horrendous actions – gassing his own people, women and children, babies - that surely disqualifies him from a continuing role."

Asked if he believed Assad should face court for his crimes, Mr Turnbull replied: "Those who commit war crimes should always be held accountable.""

Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull during a visit to the Bomana War Cemetery on Saturday.Credit: Alex Ellinghausen

Fairfax Media reporter Patrick Begley has dissected Trump's "war room" photograph:

"In the Trump photograph, the President sits at the head of a crowded table in a "sensitive compartmented information facility" - a vault-like room in the Florida resort he has turned into a "Southern White House."

Mr Trump stares stonily ahead at a TV screen for a hook-up with Vice-President Mike Pence, Defence Secretary James Mattis and the United States' most senior military adviser, Joseph Dunford.

To President Trump's right sits his son-in-law and senior adviser Jared Kushner, Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin and Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross.

To President Trump's left sits his chief of staff Reince Priebus, National Security Advisor HR McMaster and Secretary of State Rex Tillerson."

Read the full story here.

Trump's 'war room' at Mar-a-Lago.Credit: White House

Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull says the continued role of Assad "must be under enormous question".

"I have grave doubts as to whether he can have any continuing role," the Prime Minister said during a press conference in Papua New Guinea.

"The crimes that he has committed against his own people are so enormous...It is difficult to see how a political solution can be crafted that has him with a continuing role.

"His actions, his criminal horrendous actions, gassing his own people - women and children, babies - that surely disqualifies him for a continuing role

"Those who commit war crimes should always be held accountable."

Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull has reportedly told journalists that he doesn't think the Syrian civil war will be solved while Bashar al-Assad remains in power.

Turnbull is currently in Papua New Guinea marking 75 years since the Kokoda campaign.

We'll have more on this shortly.

We all know Trump is a prolific tweeter. Here's a handful of statements he's made about Syria on social media in the past few years.

Meanwhile, Trump's daughter Ivanka Trump has tweeted a video of her children Arabella and Joseph meeting (and apparently singing to) Chinese President Xi Jinping and his wife Madame Peng Liyuan. Proud grandfather Trump has retweeted.

Trump has taken a huge gamble and he might have just delivered the US to the threshold of another Middle East war, writes Fairfax Media's chief foreign correspondent Paul McGeough.

While the American missile assault on Syria needs to be kept in perspective, the new variable is Trump. In a matter of hours, a seemingly cold-hearted president has become a global humanitarian. Can Trump now parse the plight of the millions of other victims of the brutal war in Syria as any less deserving than the victims of the chemical attack by Assad? McGeough writes:

"It's all part of the amazing contradiction of Trump. Skepticism says that demolition, death and dislocation will continue apace in Syria. But Trump has sent a signal to the world – he's got a feel for American military power and he'll turn on a dime to use it.

Remember what he said of Syria on Wednesday: "I now have responsibility, and I will have that responsibility and carry it very proudly, I will tell you that - it is now my responsibility."

Yup – it might be a pile of rubble, but it's a country called Syria and Trump's name is emblazoned on it."