Hit on Assad: New US sanctions to punish Putin

The US will today impose new sanctions on Russia and delay any withdrawal of American troops from Syria.

Vladimir Putin in Moscow on Saturday. Picture: AFP

The US will today impose new sanctions on Russia and delay any withdrawal of American troops from Syria in the wake of the missile strikes against the chemical weapon capabilities of dictator ­Bashar al-Assad.

Russian President Vladimir Putin yesterday lashed out at the US, Britain and France, saying if such actions continued “it will ­inevitably entail chaos in international relations”.

French President Emmanuel Macron claimed he had persuaded Donald Trump not to withdraw the 2000 US troops from Syria.

“Ten days ago President Trump wanted the United States of America to withdraw from Syria. We convinced him to ­remain,” Mr Macron said.

US officials dispute this, but US ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley placed a series of conditions on the presence of US troops in Syria that made it unlikely there would be the early withdrawal Mr Trump ­initially wanted.

Ms Haley said the US would ­retain a military presence until three conditions were met: the total of defeat Islamic State, ensuring the Assad regime did not use chemical weapons in a way that would harm US interests and having a good vantage point to watch Iranian movements in the country.

These conditions make it likely that the modest US military presence in Syria will now continue for many months, if not years.

“We’re not going to leave until we know we’ve accomplished those things,” she said.

Ms Haley said the Trump ­administration would slap new sanctions on Russia for its failure to rid the Syrian regime of chemical weapons, as it had promised it would do. She said Moscow had stymied six attempts by the UN Security Council to make it easier to investigate the use of chemical weapons in Syria and said allies of Assad, ­including Russia and Iran, would now feel the heat.

“The international community will not allow chemical weapons to come back into our everyday life. The fact he was making this more normal and that Russia was covering this up, all that has got to stop,” Ms Haley said. “You will see that Russian sanctions will be coming down. They will go directly to any sort of companies that were dealing with equipment related to Assad and chemical weapons use.

British Prime Minister Theresa May was to defend her decision not to recall parliament and allow a vote on the action last night. But the furious Labour opposition was to try and introduce a new war powers act, which would legally demand parliamentary approval for any future military action.

“It is in our national interest to prevent the further use of chemical weapons in Syria and to uphold and defend the global consensus that these weapons should not be used,” Mrs May planned to say.

But Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn, has directly refused to blame Assad for the chemical attack. He wrote in The Guardian that Mrs May’s actions without seeking authorisation underlines her government’s weakness waiting for authorisation from a bellicose and unstable US President.

Mr Trump has declared “mission accomplished” after 105 allied missiles slammed into three chemical weapons sites in Syria at the weekend as punishment for Assad’s gas attack on civilians in rebel-held Douma that killed at least 87 people.

The Kremlin yesterday said Mr Putin and Iranian President Hasan Rowhani had agreed in a phone conversation that the allied actions were a violation of the UN charter.

“Vladimir Putin, in particular, stressed that if such actions committed in violation of the UN Charter continue, then it will inevitably lead to chaos in international relations,” its said.

Russia and Iran said the missile strikes would further complicate efforts to find a solution to the ­Syrian crisis.

Zaher al-Sakat, head of chemical warfare in the Syrian military until he defected in 2013, told The Telegraph that the Taqsis depot in Homs was intact.

“Taqsis depot is what we wanted to be hit. As long as it’s still functioning then they’ll still have chemical weapons and the ability to produce more,” he said.

The chemical weapons watchdog was to convene in The Hague last night after inspectors launched their Douma investigation yesterday. A team of experts from the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons arrived in Damascus hours after the strikes.

Cameron Stewart is also US contributor for Sky News Australia