Asselborn: 'No impulse-driven solution' for Syrian war

The Luxembourg foreign affairs minister Jean Asselborn has commented on the US, UK and French intervention in Syria, after joint military forces hit several targets on Friday night in retaliation for an apparent chemical weapons attack outside Damascus by Bashar al-Assad’s regime.

In an interview with German public broadcasting radio station Deutschlandfunk, Asselborn said that 'if the military strike in Syria was limited and the chemical weapons storage facility in Holm had been hit without anyone being hurt, the action [of US and its allies] can be somehow understood."

He outlined that using chemical weapons  is a war crime, but also that there is still no clear evidence the chemical attack had occured in the Syrian city of Douma, warning "there is no impulse-driven solution [...] to stop a war."

Asselborn went on to say the attack is not a "solution to end the war in Syria" and outlined that although the western military intervention can be regarded as a "short-term answer only", it should not be understood as the "beginning of a solution to stop a war that has lasted seven years, killed more than 350,000 people and forced millions of refugees onto the streets".

Following the air strikes, Asselborn is now calling for action and demands a political solution is found.

"The first thing that we have to do is [to create] a Joint Investment Mechanism," he said, "which means that the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OIAC/OPCW) [ an intergovernmental organisation headquartered in The Hague], and the United Nations come together and that leaders face each other".

"The second is that we have to come back to Geneva," he said. "There, a political solution must be found", he stated, further arguing that even Russia, which backs President Assad, is interested in a political solution to end the war in Syria.

Air strikes

On Friday night, US, France, UK launched strikes on Syria after chemical attack, with President Donald Trump arguing the missile strikes focused on chemical weapons sites. The Pentagon further said a research center and weapons storage site were hit in the attack.

General Joseph Dunford, chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, told reporters on Saturday that naval and air forces from the three countries struck three primary targets, including a chemical weapons research facility outside Damascus and a weapons storage facility near Homs. He said the strikes were designed to minimise the risk of civilian casualties.

The Pentagon further said that missile strikes on Syria have hampered Bashar al-Assad’s ability to use chemical weapons again, without encountering serious resistance from the Syrian military or its Russian allies.

President Donald Trump summed up that achievement in two words: "Mission accomplished."

America’s involvement may not be over, also said Trump’s ambassador to the United Nations, Nikki Haley. She stated the US is "locked and loaded," and ready to punish Syria again if it keeps using chemical weapons.

Vice President Mike Pence, at the Summit of the Americas in Lima, said the move had been "morally right," and that the US is prepared to "sustain" its efforts against the use of chemical weapons.

Trump and top aides, in consultation with leaders of France and the UK, had become concerned that not responding to this month’s attack on Douma, a suburb of Syria ’s capital Damascus, may normalise the proliferation of chemical weapons around the world, said two administration officials who asked not to be identified to discuss the deliberations.

Syria and its backers called the attack a violation of international law, and the UN Security Council held an emergency meeting Saturday at Russia’s request at which it rejected Moscow’s resolution to condemn the strikes.

Yet the pushback was limited to words, after several days in which brinkmanship on both sides had raised the prospect of a direct clash between two nuclear powers. The UN Secretary-General had called the situation potentially more dangerous than the Cold War.

The US said that 105 missiles were fired against three targets in Syria , including chlorine and sarin gas research facilities, and that Assad’s capacity for chemical warfare had been "significantly degraded." Lieutenant General Kenneth McKenzie, director of joint staff at the Pentagon, called it a "proportional, precision" attack.

McKenzie told reporters on Saturday that none of the missiles were shot down, and there was no indication that Russian air defenses stationed in Syria were used. Russian General Sergei Rudskoi said earlier that Syrian systems had intercepted about two-thirds of the missiles. The UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, an anti-Assad group with networks of observers inside the country, said some missiles had been intercepted while others "caused great material damage," though no casualties had been reported.

On the ground in Syria , armed forces liberated Eastern Ghouta after driving out the remaining armed groups from Douma, the Al Mayadeen television network reported, citing a statement by the Syrian Army.

In his tweet on Saturday, Trump called the strike "perfectly executed." His allies defended an action carried out without a UN mandate, and before inspectors from the global body that monitors chemical weapons had a chance to visit the site of the alleged attack. All three countries involved in the overnight strikes said they were satisfied with evidence pointing to Assad’s responsibility.

In the U.S. the reception seems to have been positive. Trump’s approval rating rose to 40%, the highest level this year, in a poll by ABC News and the Washington Post.

UK's involvement

"We would have preferred an alternative path, but in this case there was none,’" UK Prime Minister Theresa May told reporters in London. "We cannot allow the use of chemical weapons to become normalized." Russia has accused UK intelligence services of staging the chemical attack as a pretext for intervention.

May said the strikes weren’t intended to influence the course of the Syrian civil war. French President Emmanuel Macron also said the action was narrowly focused on Syria ’s chemical weapons facilities. US Defense Secretary Jim Mattis said there were no current plans for further strikes.

In the US and UK, there were signs of domestic opposition. Some Democrats in Washington said that Trump had no Congressional mandate for any attack, while Republican Senator Lindsey Graham criticised its limited scope, saying that "when the dust settles this strike will be seen as a weak military response and Assad will have paid a small price for using chemical weapons yet again."

British opposition leader Jeremy Corbyn called the strikes "legally questionable" and said that May had "trailed after Donald Trump" by involving the UK.

UK Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson insisted that the strike against Syria ’s alleged chemical arms infrastructure was a one-time move, even as the U.S. signaled it’s ready to punish the Middle Eastern country again if it keeps using banned weapons.

“The overwhelming purpose, the mission was to send a message,” Johnson said. “Finally the world has said enough is enough.” He conceded that this meant “the rest of the Syrian war must proceed as it will” and that Bashar Al-Assad would be allowed to “butcher his way” to victory.

With Prime Minister Theresa May due to face critics in Parliament on Monday, Johnson’s comments highlighted the strains even Friday night’s limited offensive produced for the trans-Atlantic allies after years of struggle in Afghanistan and Iraq. If May were to seek a mandate for a wider intervention, she’d risk the defeat that her predecessor David Cameron suffered over the same issue in 2013.

Russia's answer

President Vladimir Putin called the airstrikes "an act of aggression against a sovereign state that is on the front line in the fight against terrorism," and a breach of international law.

Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei said the attacks were a "crime,’" while China objected to the use of force.

While Russia wasn’t specifically informed of targets in advance, channels of communication used for "deconfliction" were employed, according to US officials. Amid the escalating tensions of the past week, Russian officials had warned that they could shoot at US ships or planes used to launch strikes, while Trump had threatened to send missiles raining down anyway.

Kamran Bokhari, a senior fellow with the Center for Global Policy in Washington, said the strikes appeared intended to avoid provoking Russia. "Russia probably got an assurance that these strikes would only target the CW capability of the regime," he said, referring to chemical weapons.

Trump’s decision to order an attack on Syria came days after he’d promised to pull US troops out of the country altogether. Some 2,000 American troops occupy an energy-rich area of eastern Syria , where they’ve been fighting the now largely defeated Islamic State. Many Trump critics, and some of his allies, say bringing them home now would play into the hands of America’s enemies.

Trump reiterated on Friday that he wants to withdraw, without setting a timeline. "America does not seek an indefinite presence in Syria ," he said. "As other nations step up their contributions, we look forward to the day when we can bring our warriors home."