The Wall Street Journal- 11 April 2018- The Trump administration worked Tuesday to rally international support for a possible military strike against Syrian President Bashar al-Assad for an alleged chemical-weapons attack, drawing initial backing from France, the U.K. and Saudi Arabia, all of whom vowed a forceful response.
As President Donald Trump and top administration officials conferred with international counterparts, the U.S. and France positioned warships armed with cruise missiles within firing range of Syria.
The expanding support for a unified response suggested that the U.S. and other nations could carry out a series of strikes more extensive than last year’s U.S. attack on a Syrian airfield. Possible options included salvos aimed at crippling Mr. Assad’s chemical-weapons capabilities, while not seeking to push him from power.
Mr. Trump, at the urging of his national security team, canceled plans to travel Friday to Latin America for a regional summit so that he can oversee the U.S. response. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis also rearranged his travel schedule, putting off a planned trip to the West Coast.
The complexity and scope of a military response is sure to pose a challenge for the U.S., which will have to decide whether to target military bases in Syria used by Russian and Iranian forces working with the Syrian military.
Mr. Trump has vowed to punish Russia and Iran if the U.S. concludes they helped with the strike that killed more than 40 people, including women and children. But there was no indication that the U.S. would target Russian and Iranian forces in Syria.
Instead, the U.S. and its allies are looking at ways to cripple Mr. Assad’s ability to carry out more chemical attacks. Russia’s United Nations ambassador, Vassily Nebenzia, warned Tuesday of the “confrontational potential” of what he termed an “illegal military venture.”
French President Emmanuel Macron said strikes could target the Syrian regime’s chemical-weapons storage facilities, though doing so poses the risk of triggering a release of deadly gases that could kill civilians in the area.
Mr. Macron said he expected the small group of leaders crafting a response to take action “in the coming days.”
Joining Mr. Macron on Tuesday for talks in Paris was Saudi Arabia’s day-to-day ruler, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, who pledged his country’s support for the evolving U.S. plans.
Prince Mohammed suggested the kingdom could participate in any military action taken against the regime, though it remains unclear what role his country would play.
“If our alliance with our partners requires it, we will be present,” he said at a joint news conference with Mr. Macron.
As the U.S. conferred with its allies, the U.S. and France moved warships armed with cruise missiles through the eastern Mediterranean, and the vessels were in position to launch an attack if ordered. Britain has an air defense destroyer in the same area and more than a dozen fighters armed with a variety of missiles that could be used in an attack.
U.K. Prime Minister Theresa May, who spoke with Mr. Trump on Tuesday, wouldn’t say explicitly that Britain would join in any military response.
“We believe that those responsible should be held to account,” she said…
Faced with growing international pressure, Syria and Russia offered to allow a fact-finding team into the country to investigate the weekend attack. The Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, which is responsible for monitoring violations of an international accord banning chemical weapons, said it was preparing to send a team to Syria.
U.S. officials made it clear that they weren’t going to base their decision on whether to carry out a strike on waiting for the results of the independent investigation, which would only determine if deadly chemicals were used, not who was responsible for the attack.
Some U.S. officials expressed skepticism about the Syrian and Russian offer of an inspection, saying that those countries initially blocked access to the site of the alleged attack and that some of the evidence might have been destroyed.
“We don’t have much credibility in the offers the regime put forward,” a U.S. official said shortly before the OPCW announcement. “We don’t know if the evidence has been tampered with.”
Intelligence officials around the globe have been working to pinpoint the type of chemicals used in the weekend strike, and what role, if any, was played by Moscow and Tehran.
Medical professionals and human-rights groups say that Syrian military helicopters dropped weapons containing poison gas that caused symptoms consistent with exposure to chlorine and a nerve agent. Dozens of people, including families hiding in their basements, died and hundreds were injured.
The prospects for a U.S.-led action increased Tuesday after Russia vetoed a U.S.-crafted resolution before the United Nations Security Council that called for creation of a new group to investigate chemical attacks in Syria and determine who carried them out.
Nikki Haley, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, said the vote marked a decisive moment in the council’s history to hold perpetrators of chemical attacks accountable and the council had failed due to Russia’s repeated vetoes.
Russia accused the U.S. of using the debate as a pretext for military strikes.
