![Image of Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov in Moscow, Russia, 9 March 2017 [Nikita Shvetsov - Anadolu Agency]](https://i0.wp.com/www.middleeastmonitor.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/20170309_2_22302795_19689465.jpg?fit=1200%2C800&ssl=1)
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Friday he hoped US missile strikes on Syria would not irreparably damage relations between Moscow and Washington.
“This is an act of aggression, on an absolutely made-up pretext,” Lavrov told a news conference in Tashkent, Uzbekistan. “It reminds me of the situation in 2003 when the United States and Britain, along with some of their allies, attacked Iraq.”
He said Russia would demand Washington explain why it conducted the strikes.
“I hope this provocation will not lead to irreparable damage [to US-Russian ties],” Lavrov said.
In the early hours of this morning, US Navy destroyers in the Mediterranean launched 59 cruise missiles on an airbase controlled and operated by the regime of Bashar Al-Assad. More than a dozen regime warplanes were destroyed, in addition to the majority of the base suffering extensive damage, putting it out of action.
‘No child of God’ should suffer chemical attacks
The US said that the airbase near the west-central city of Homs had been targeted because Washington had intelligence that the sarin chemical weapons attack that killed almost 100 men, women and children in Khan Sheikhoun in opposition-held Idlib province
In a speech this morning explaining the US attack he ordered, US President Donald Trump said:
No child of God should ever suffer such horror.
“There can be no dispute that Syria used banned chemical weapons, violated its obligations under the Chemical Weapons Convention, and ignored the urging of the UN Security Council,” Trump said.
Blaming Al-Assad’s violence for the refugee crisis that has engulfed Europe and other western countries, Trump said: “As a result [of Assad regime massacres], the refugee crisis continues to deepen and the region continues to destabilise, threatening the United States and its allies.”
Will Russia strike back?
According to Lavrov, Russia denied that any Russian servicemen had been killed in the US strikes. However, analysts have said that the Assad regime and its allies are likely to attempt probing retaliatory attacks against Syrian targets in order to test US resolve.
Read More: Trump striking Assad was a good start, but needs to go further
This has already been borne out by the Assad regime launching airstrikes this morning against Khan Sheikhoun, the northern town in Idlib province that it had earlier attacked on Tuesday with the nerve agent sarin, killing almost 100 men, women and children.
Meanwhile, the Kremlin has also announced that it has suspended an agreement with the US-led coalition that guaranteed each other’s safety over flight paths in Syria. The implication behind Moscow’s move is that US and allied warplanes may be targeted by advanced Russian anti-air missile batteries.
Russia deployed its advanced S-400 surface-to-air missile system to Syria in 2015. The S-400 SAM umbrella covers most of Syria from the Kremlin’s military base in Khmeimim near Latakia, and is capable of shooting down western warplanes.
The Syrian uprising looked to have been at the cusp of being crushed and the war ending in Al-Assad’s favour after Russia intervened in September 2015 to shore up the Assad regime and its Iranian Shia backers. However, the Trump administration’s strike on a major airbase may have the effect of resetting global expectations, with the coming days and weeks being of critical importance for the overall outcome of the war.