(MENAFN- The Peninsula) Reports of a chemical attack outside Syria's capital thrust the U.S. and Russia into new confrontation on Sunday, with Washington calling for an immediate international response and Moscow warning against any military strike.
Rescue workers and activists said dozens died in a chemical assault amid renewed government fire on Douma, the last rebel stronghold in the Damascus area. The use of chemical weapons last April provoked a U.S. missile strike, the first direct American hit on Bashar al-Assad's regime since the conflict in Syria began in March 2011.
The allegations of chemical warfare come at a time when the U.S. administration is pulling in different directions over Syria policy, with President Donald Trump calling for a speedy American pullout over the objections of the state and defense departments. Trump suggested the U.S. wouldn't sit idly by, tweeting that Russian President Vladimir Putin and Iran "are responsible for backing Animal Assad. Big price...
Syria's official Sana news agency said the rapidly advancing army "doesn't need to use any chemical weapons as the media channels that support the terrorists are fabricating. It cited an official it didn't identify.
Russia, whose military backing of Assad turned the course of the war in his favor, denied that Syrian government forces deployed chemical weapons in Douma, according to the Tass news service, which cited Major General Yuri Yevtushenko. Russia plans to send specialists to analyze the scene once militants are expelled from the area, and said the data will refute claims of chemical use, Tass reported.
The Foreign Ministry in Moscow warned that any foreign military strike against Syria over "fabricated reports of chemical warfare may lead to the "gravest consequences.
More than 40 people suffocated to death due to exposure to an unknown chemical agent, the White Helmets, an opposition-linked civil defense force that operates in rebel areas, said on Twitter. Images of lifeless children and women foaming from their mouths were circulated on social media. Fatalities could exceed 100 people, according to the Syrian National Coalition, an opposition umbrella group.
"Reports from a number of contacts and medical personnel on the ground indicate a potentially high number of casualties, including among families hiding in shelters, the U.S. State Department said in a statement. "These reports, if confirmed, are horrifying and demand an immediate response by the international community.
The U.S. Tomahawk missile strike last year increased tensions with Russia, which has backed Assad in his battle to suppress an uprising that morphed into a regional proxy war. The State Department said in its statement that Russia "‘ultimately bears responsibility for these brutal attacks and has "breached its commitments to the United Nations as a framework guarantor to a 2013 agreement to strip Syria of its chemical weapons stockpiles.
Internal Rift
The internal divisions in the U.S. administration over Syria policy leaves Russia, Iran and Turkey "calling the shots in Syria, not the U.S., according to Andreas Krieg, assistant professor of defense studies at King's College, London.
"Washington is in no position to take any action, and Russia knows that, Krieg said. "The Trump administration's rhetoric about pulling out of Syria hasn't helped the U.S.'s bargaining position. The regime knows now that it will get away with murder.
More than seven years of war in Syria have killed half a million people and dispersed millions more as refugees. The fighting has also drawn in Iran, Russia, the U.S. and Turkey, and a postwar scenario could include a continuation of Syria's de facto partition into spheres of foreign influence.
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