Trump walks back from his threat - "never said when attack on Syria would take place"

RT
Thu, 12 Apr 2018 17:13 UTC

© Nicholas Kamm / AFP

US President Donald Trump has taken to Twitter to clarify that he never specified when the US would conduct an attack on Syria.

"Never said when an attack on Syria would take place," Trump wrote on Thursday. "Could be very soon or not so soon at all!"

Trump also credited his administration with defeating ISIS in Syria. "In any event, the United States, under my Administration, has done a great job of ridding the region of ISIS. Where is our "Thank you America?" he tweeted.

Trump's tweet comes a day after he warned Russia to "get ready" for a missile strike on Syria. The US is considering a military response over a reported chemical weapons attack on the rebel enclave of Douma on April 7.

Syrian President Bashar Assad has been accused of being behind the purported incident, but the US said it also holds Russia responsible for failing to prevent Assad from conducting the alleged attack.

White House spokesperson Sarah Huckabee Sanders said Wednesday Trump "holds Syria and Russia responsible for this chemical weapons attack," and said "all options are on the table."

Comment: In other news, some random idiot holds Elvis Presley responsible for the killing of JFK. That's how much weight Trump's judgment on Douma has. Unfortunately, he also controls a very big military.

Sanders's response was kind of funny:

At that point, journalists wanted more. "What does that mean?" they asked. She repeated the same line over and over again, in a style that became increasingly predictable and robotic.

"We have a number of options" and "all options are on the table" were said countless times. Occasionally, Sanders mixed it up by saying something slightly different like, "We're considering all of those options."

At least Sanders seemed to be aware of her repetitiveness. "Like I've said a few times today, all options are on the table," she said with a smile while responding to a journalist's question.

If the message hasn't gotten through, let's sum it up. All options are on the table for US President Donald Trump. All of them.

Earlier this week, Russia's permanent representative to the UN, Vassily Nebenzia, pointed out that the alleged incident was beneficial only to the militants. Russian military specialists visited the site and said they found no signs of a chemical attack or any victims.

The Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, the UN's chemical weapons watchdog, said back in June 2014 that all stockpiles of such material had been removed from the country.

Trump tweeted Wednesday that Russia should "get ready," because missiles "will be coming, nice new and smart!"

Russia responded to Trump's threat by calling on common sense to prevail. "We do not participate in Twitter diplomacy," Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said. "We support serious approaches. We continue to believe that it is important not to take steps that could harm an already-fragile situation."

Comment: A positive sign. That doesn't change the facts though. As Russian UN ambassador Nebenzya put it yesterday:

"The threat to international peace and security is a violation of the UN charter. We're very concerned with the situation, with this dangerous escalation. We hope that there will be no point of no return, that the US and their allies will refrain from military action against the sovereign state," Russia's envoy to the UN, Vassily Nebenzia, told reporters on Thursday.

The "immediate priority" for the UN must be "to avert the danger of war," the diplomat stressed, stating that since Russian troops are deployed in Syria, the conflict can easily spill out of the country in case of any foreign attack. The second most important thing is to ensure the work of the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) specialists, who are expected to embark on their fact-finding mission on Saturday.

"You understand that the danger of escalation is higher than simply Syria, because our military are there on the invitation of the Syrian government, so the situation is very dangerous," Nebenzia said.

Russia advocates an open discussion in the UN on the situation around Syria and threats to "international peace and security." This discussion should be held with the participation of the UN Secretary-General, Nebenzia said. The diplomat did not give any details, but said such talks would be held in "the near future."

And today:

"The irresponsible behavior of the US, trampling on the international law and on the sovereignty of the other countries is unworthy of their status as a permanent member of the UN Security Council. This status needs the highest degree of responsibility, and not the right to saber rattle, inexistent in the international behavior code," Nebenzia stated.

The whole situation with the threats against Syria, made by the US and its allies, resembles their previous aggressive actions, namely in Iraq and Libya, when the UN was used simply to justify their steps, the Russian envoy added.

"The perpetrators are named before any investigation, and apparently they are to be punished," Nebenzia said. "The US has adopted a largely consumerist approach to the UNSC. The Security Council is needed for them simply to cover the Iraqi test tubes or the Libyan no-flight zone. You are showing us the same virtual empty test tube now, too."