Russia, Iran Denounce Airstrikes on Close Ally Syria

Thomas Grove in Moscow and

Thomas Grove

The Wall Street Journal

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@tggrove
thomas.grove@wsj.com

Aresu Eqbali in Tehran

April 14, 2018 5:50 a.m. ET

The Syrian government’s staunch allies strongly condemned the overnight airstrikes on Assad regime targets, with Iran’s supreme leader branding as “criminals” President Donald Trump, U.K. Prime Minister Theresa May and French President Emmanuel Macron.

Russian President Vladimir Putin denounced the attack in a statement Saturday. “With their actions, the U.S. is deepening a humanitarian catastrophe in Syria,” he said, calling for an emergency meeting of the United Nations Security Council to discuss the situation.

But he stopped short of threatening direct retaliation in a deepening standoff between Syria’s allies and the West.

Hours earlier, U.S., U.K. and French forces launched airstrikes in Syria in retaliation against a suspected chemical-weapons attack last week that killed at least 43 civilians. Among the targets were a research center for the Syrian chemical-weapons program and a number of production sites, according to officials.

Russia, whose military support for the Assad regime since 2015 has been a key reason for its success on the battlefield, said none of its soldiers were killed in the strikes and that its planes were now patrolling the skies above Syria in case of further aggression.

U.S. and Allies Strike Syria

The U.S., the U.K. and France launched airstrikes against sites associated with Syria’s chemical-weapons capabilities.

Damascus skies erupted with antiaircraft fire as the U.S. and its allies launched an attack on Syria early Saturday.

Hassan Ammar/Associated Press

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The lack of immediate response from Moscow following the strike indicated a lack of desire to enter into direct military confrontation with the West.

“Russia wasn’t planning to strike back unless it’s troops were hit,” said Ivan Konovalov, an independent military analyst. “It’s clear that the U.S., U.K. and France did everything they could to prevent that from happening.”

Russia’s chief of staff said Syrian forces used Soviet-era air defenses to intercept more than 70 rockets that targeted air bases and other installations. The claim couldn’t be independently confirmed.

Iran also issued a strong response to the overnight action.

“Today’s morning attack on Syria is a crime,” Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said in a speech posted on his website. “I explicitly announce that the U.S. president, French president and the British prime minister are criminals and have committed crime.”

Iran has also been a close ally of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, helping his regime take back power over nearly half the country during a seven-year civil war.

Iranian officials said the U.S.-led strikes wouldn’t change the battlefield conditions. Mr. Assad’s use of chemical weapons has helped bring rebel groups to heel, but he has made most of his gains with conventional warfare, including bombings and siege tactics.

“The Americans assume that they can change field conditions in Syria but this will certainly not happen,” Yadollah Javani, deputy head for political affairs for the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corp, told the semiofficial Fars news agency.

“This complicated situation will definitely bring harm to the U.S.,” Mr. Javani said. “The U.S. will be responsible for the future occurrences and next consequences in the region and those occurrences will not be in their interest.”

Iran’s Foreign Ministry earlier condemned the strikes, saying there would be unspecified “consequences and repercussions for this adventurism,” according to state news agency IRNA.

French President Emmanuel Macron confirmed his country’s participation in the strikes, with the Élysée Palace posting a video on Twitter of what it said were planes taking off to take part in the operation.

“Dozens of men, women and children were massacred with chemical weapons,” Mr. Macron said. “The red line had been crossed.”

The U.K. government called the operation a success.

“Detailed analysis of the effectiveness of the strike is currently under way, but initial indications are that the precision...and meticulous target planning have resulted in a successful attack,” said U.K. Defense Secretary Gavin Williamson.

Prime Minister Theresa May said the airstrikes against Syria were necessary to deter the use of chemical weapons.

“I believe it was the right thing for us to do,” she said.

The Turkish government, which has clashed repeatedly with the West on Syrian issues in recent months while increasing military coordination with Russia, voiced support for the strikes.

The Foreign Ministry said they were an “appropriate response to the chemical attack which caused the deaths of many civilians.”

“Turkey believes that it is of critical importance that such crimes do not go unpunished,” the ministry said in a statement, urging members of the U.N. Security Council to reach an agreement on this principle.

—Nick Kostov, Jason Douglas and David Gauthier-Villars contributed to this article.

Write to Thomas Grove at thomas.grove@wsj.com

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