Chemical Attack: US Accuses Russia of Shielding Assad

 Trump, who has faced criticism for lacking a broader strategy to deal with the Syria crisis, insisted he has no plans to “go into” the war-torn country.

Senior White House officials, briefing reporters on condition of anonymity, said Assad’s government carried out the April 4 sarin nerve gas attack on civilians in Syria’s Idlib provinc.

87 people, including many children were killed in the attack.

Russia has defended the Syrian leader against U.S. allegations that his forces carried out the attack, saying there was no evidence.

Russia has blamed Syrian rebels.

“It’s clear that the Russians are trying to cover up what happened there,” one White House official said.

White House spokesman Sean Spicer later told reporters that the facts backed up the U.S. version of events.
 

“Russia is on an island when it comes to its support of Syria or its lack of, frankly, acknowledgment of what happened,” he told reporters.

However, at the same briefing, Spicer drew criticism after he sought to underscore the ghastliness of the gas attack by saying: “You had someone as despicable as Hitler who didn’t even sink to using chemical weapons.

“Nazi Germany used gas chambers to kill millions of Jews during the Holocaust.

Spicer later apologised and said he should not have made the comparison.

The White House officials said Russia has frequently offered multiple, conflicting accounts of Syrian government aggression including the incident in the village of Khan Sheikhoun to sow doubt within the international community.

The U.S. launched 59 cruise missiles at a Syrian airfield on Thursday to retaliate after the attack.

The strikes thrust Trump, who came to power in January calling for warmer ties with Russia, and his administration into confrontation with Moscow.

Chinese President Xi Jinping told Trump in a telephone call on Wednesday that “any use of chemical weapons is unacceptable” and urged a political solution for Syria, Chinese state broadcaster CCTV said of the telephone exchange.

“(We) must persevere with moving towards a political solution for the Syria issue. It is very important that the United Nations Security Council maintains unity on the Syria issue.

“(I) hope the Security Council can speak with a single voice,” CCTV cited Xi as saying.

Trump’s ambassador to the United Nations, Nikki Haley, said on Tuesday she thought Russia knew about the chemical attack in advance.

“They didn’t look shocked. They didn’t look surprised. They were so quick to defend. And then the evidence comes out, and we see exactly what it is and we know exactly what the environment was. Then you realise,” she said on CNN.

U.S. intelligence indicates that the chemical agent in the attack was delivered by Syrian Su-22 aircraft that took off from the Shayrat airfield, according to a White House report given to reporters.

In a four-page document, the White House sought to rebut many of Moscow’s claims about the circumstances of the attack.

It said the Syrian planes were in the vicinity of Khan Sheikhoun about 20 minutes before the attack and left shortly afterward.

“Additionally, our information indicates personnel historically associated with Syria’s chemical weapons program were at Shayrat airfield in late March making preparations for an upcoming attack in northern Syria, and they were present at the airfield on the day of the attack,” the report said.

Washington wants Russia to stop supporting Assad, who has been fighting a six-year-long civil war against mostly Sunni Muslim rebels, also with the backing of Shi’ite Muslim Iran.

(Reuters/NAN)

Oil price Hit one month high at $56pb after US missile attack on Syria

Oil price went to a one-month high yesterday after the United States attacked a Syrian government airbase, killing six people, rattling the oil-rich region.

US warships launched 59 Tomahawk cruise missiles at Shayrat Airfield  on Thursday night in response to a chemical attack on civilians in the town of Khan Sheikhoun earlier in the week.
 

The toughest U.S. action yet in Syria’s six-year-old civil war has ramped up geopolitical uncertainty in the Middle East. This supported oil futures, which were on track for a three percent weekly increase on signs of higher U.S. demand and lower product inventories.
 

“Oil markets are back in bullish mode after the setback of the previous weeks. This news flow seems to bring geopolitical risks back on the radar,” said Frank Klumpp, oil analyst at Landesbank Baden-Wuerttemberg, based in Stuttgart, Germany.
 

The airstrike does not necessarily cut oil supplies from Syria, but may damp investors’ appetite in the short term. The airstrike was strongly supported by Saudi Arabia, the leading oil producer in the world, and the core leader of Sunni Muslims in the world.
 

Vladimir Putin of Russia regarded the airstrike as an act of agreession, which is considered to have strained US-Russia relations.
 

“Putin views the US strikes on Syria as aggression against a sovereign state in violation of the norms of international law and on a made-up up pretext. Washington’s step will inflict major damage on US-Russia ties,” Dmitry Peskov, Putin’s spokesman said.
 

Angela Merkel and Francois Hollande, leaders of Germany and France, released a joint statement in support of the attack against Assad’s regime.
 

“Assad bears full responsibility for this development. His continued use of chemical weapons and mass crimes cannot go unpunished. This is what France had asked in the summer of 2013, the day after the chemical attack in Ghouta,” their statement reads.
 

The market could get a further boost when the Baker Hughes U.S. rig count is released on Friday afternoon, if it shows a slower pace of increase in oil drilling.
 

Although Syria has limited oil production, any escalation of the conflict feeds fears about oil supplies due to the country’s location and alliances with big oil producers in the region.
 

Oil, gold, foreign exchange and bond markets reacted strongly to the attack but reversed some of the sharp moves after monthly U.S. employment figures came in weaker than expected.
 

Brent crude futures were up 28 cents at $55.17 a barrel by 11:33 a.m. EDT (1533 GMT) after reaching an intraday peak of $56.08, the highest since March 7, shortly after the U.S. missile strike was announced. U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures were up 37 cents at $52.07 a barrel, having reached an intraday high of $52.94.
 

Oil came off session highs as U.S. economic data weighed on global markets. Some analysts said the conflict in Syria had no bearing on oil fundamentals and the political risk premium could vanish quickly.
 

“This might just be a speculative move higher because there’s nothing fundamental that’s supporting this rise,” said Hamza Khan, head of commodities strategy at ING.
 

Traders eyed news from Canada, where two oil sands producers have cut production due to a shortage of synthetic crude following a plant fire.  “The production outages in Canada will … continue to have a price-supportive effect,” said Carsten Fritsch, commodities analyst at Commerzbank.
 

In bearish news, non-OPEC producer Kazakhstan raised production last month despite its pledge to cut output by 20,000 barrels per day in the first half of 2017.

By FESTUS OKOROMADU

US Cruise missile Strike on Syria, Condemned by Putin

Russian President Vladimir Putin condemned U.S. cruise missile strikes on Syria on Friday, warning the move would further damage already battered U.S.-Russia relations which Moscow had hoped President Donald Trump would revive.

U.S. officials said they had informed Russian forces ahead of the strikes, intended to punish the Syrian government for what they say was a chemical weapons attack on Wednesday, and had avoided hitting Russian personnel.

Satellite imagery suggests the Shayrat air base that was struck in western Syria is home to Russian special forces and military helicopters, part of the Kremlin’s effort to help the Syrian government fight Islamic State and other militant groups.

Russia’s main air base and a naval facility were not hit.

Moscow had been hoping to cooperate with Trump to jointly fight Islamic State in Syria, a move it was banking on to boost U.S.-Russia ties which are at a post-Cold War low.

After the U.S. strikes, that task now looks harder.

“President Putin views the U.S. strikes on Syria as aggression against a sovereign state in violation of the norms of international law and on a made-up up pretext,” said a Kremlin statement.

“This step by Washington will inflict major damage on U.S.-Russia ties.”

Putin, a staunch ally of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, was holding a meeting of Russia’s Security Council to discuss the strike on Friday afternoon and the Russian Foreign Ministry called for an emergency meeting of the UN Security Council.

A foreign ministry statement said Moscow was suspending a Syrian air safety agreement with the U. S. originally drawn up to ensure that the two countries’ planes did not collide.

“It’s clear to any specialist that the decision to launch a strike was taken in Washington before the events in Idlib (the province where the gas poisoning took place) which were simply used as a pretext for a show of force,” the ministry said.

The Russian Defence Ministry meanwhile mocked the effectiveness of the U.S. strikes, saying only 23 missiles had found their targets.

It was unclear where another 36 had landed, it said, promising Syrian air defenses would now be beefed up.

A Russian frigate armed with Kalibr cruise missiles sailed through the Bosphorus en route to the eastern Mediterranean in the early hours of Friday morning, according to pictures taken by Turkish bloggers for their online Bosphorus Naval News project.

It was unclear if that was related to the U.S. strikes.

Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said there were no reports of any Russians being hurt in the attack.

He said he hoped U.S.-Russia ties would not be irreparably hurt as a result.

Rex Tillerson is due to make his first visit to Moscow next week as U.S. secretary of state, an eagerly awaited event in Russia where politicians have been anxious to try to use the change of administration to reboot relations.

This story first appeared on The Nation