Trump vows quick decision on Syria after suspected chemical attack

U.S. President DonaldTrump on Monday condemned a suspected chemical weapons attack ona rebel-held town in Syria that killed dozens of people and saidhe would make a decision on a response, probably by the end ofthe day.

Speaking at a cabinet meeting, Trump said he was talking tomilitary leaders and would decide who was responsible for theattack whether it was Russia, or the Syrian government, or Iranor all of them together.

"Nothing is off the table," he said when asked if U.S. military action was a possibility.

International bodies led by the Organization for theProhibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) are trying to establish exactly what happened Saturday inDouma, a besieged town ineasternGhoutanear Damascus.

The OPCW said it has been "closely monitoring the incident" in Douma. The organization'sfact-finding mission, which was first established in2014 after allegations of chemical attacks in Syria,is "in the process of gathering further information from all available sources to establish whether chemical weapons were used."

The Syrian government and its ally Russia have deniedinvolvement.

Trump's UN ambassador, Nikki Haley, had harsh words forSyrian PresidentBasharal-Assadon Monday, tellinga meeting of the Security Council on Monday afternoon that "important decisions are being weighed even as we speak."

The U.S., she said,"will respond" whether the council takes action or not. How exactly the U.S. might respond, however, wasn't immediately clear.

Haley said many of the victims of the most recent attack were hiding in basements to try and take shelter from conventional weapons and shelling. But those basements, she said, " became their tombs" when chemical weapons were used.

"Who does this? Only a monster does this," Haley said.

Haley's comments came not long after the Russian UN ambassador,Vassily Nebenzia, told the council "there was no chemical weapons attack."

Bashari Jaafari, Syria's representative at the UN, addressed the Security Council late in the meeting, where he said evidence of a chemicalattack is fabricated.Syria, he said, isprepared to facilitate anOPCWvisit toDouma.

He also used his appearance before the Security Council toattack the credibility and intentions of the U.S., saying the meeting was a pretext for military action against Syria.

'Established pattern'

White House press secretary Sarah Sanders also spoke of the attack on Monday, telling reporters in Washingtonthat Saturday's deadly attack is "consistent" with Assad's "established pattern of chemical weapons use."

Sanders said Trump is "confident" in the intelligence related to the attack but she will not specifically say if the U.S. government has determined that Assad's government was behind the attack.

U.S. Defence Secretary Jim Mattis said he would not rule outmilitary action such as airstrikes if blame was proved.

Mattis accused Russia of falling short on its obligations toensure that Syria abandoned its chemical weapons capabilities.

"The first thing we have to look at is why are chemicalweapons still being used at all when Russia was the framework guarantor of removing all the chemical weapons."

'Big price to pay'

Trump saidSunday after initial reports of an attack thatthere would be a "big price to pay."

Exact numbers are hard to determine, as access to the area is limited. But aSyrian medical relief group said at least 60 people hadbeen killed and more than 1,000 injured in several sites in Douma.

The stakes were further raised on Monday when unidentifiedwar planes struck a Syrian airbase near Homs, killing at least14 people, including Iranian personnel. Syria and Russia accusedIsrael of carrying out the attack.

Israel, which has struck Syrian army locations many times inthe course of its neighbour's seven-year-old civil war, has neither confirmed nor denied mounting the raid.

But Israeli officials said the Tiyas, or T4, airbase wasbeing used by troops from Iran and that Israel would not accept such a presence in Syria by its arch foe.

The two incidents in Douma and Tiyas demonstrated the complex and volatile nature of the Syria war, which started in March 2011 as an anti-Assad uprising and now involves a numberof countries and myriad insurgent groups.

Assad now has the upper hand in the conflict, largely thanksto Russian intervention on his side, but any international action could delay his efforts to bring it to close.

Range of options

Staffan de Mistura, the UN Special Envoy for Syria, told theSecurity Council that civilians are paying a heavy price for military escalation and called for restraint.The first priority, he said, should be protecting civilians from war, from chemical weapons, from hunger.

GRAPHIC WARNING: Hospital scrambles to treat victims of alleged gas attack in Syria

6 years ago

Duration 1:11

Attack kills dozens in Douma, but government denies involvement

Ahead of the meeting, Britain said it was working with its allies to agree a jointresponse to the reported chemical attack on Douma.

"If there is clear verified evidence of the use of chemicalweapons and a proposal for action where the U.K. would be useful,then we will look at the range of options," Prime MinisterTheresa May's spokesperson said.

France said it would work closely with the United States ona response to the suspected chemical attack. Both countries agreed responsibility for the strike must be established.

The numbers keep rising as relief workers struggle to gain access to the subterranean areas where gas has entered and hundreds of families had sought refuge.- Union of Medical Care Organizations

President Emmanuel Macron, who spoke to Trump by telephoneon Sunday, had issued repeated warnings previously that Francewould strike if proof of lethal chemical attacks were established. But Paris stopped short of apportioning blame onAssad's forces for Saturday's attack.

Trump had referred in a tweet to "Animal Assad," andcriticized Russia and Iran for backing the Syrian leader,directly naming Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, meanwhile, said such allegationswere false and a provocation.

Syrian government forces had launched an air and groundassault on Douma, the last rebel-held town in the eastern Ghoutadistrict, on Friday.

One video shared by activists showed bodies of about a dozenchildren, women and men, some with foam at the mouth. Reuterscould not independently verify the reports.

Haley describedgraphic images and videos from Syria, saying the images showed victim's whose skin "is the ashen blue that is now tragically familiar from chemical weapons scenes."

The OPCW, based in The Hague, said people were possiblygassed to death by a poisonous cocktail of sarin and chlorine.

A doctor in Ghouta quoted by UOSSMsaidpatients were coughing blood, a symptom not seen in previouschemical attacks.

UNwar crimes investigators had previously documented 33chemical attacks in Syria, attributing 27 to the Assad government, which has repeatedly denied using the weapons.

The United States fired missiles on a Syrian airbase a yearago in response to the killing of dozens of civilians in a sarin gas attack in an opposition-held town in northwest Syria, blamedon Assad.