US stares down Russia after UN fails to agree on action against Syria
Washington —The US maintained the threat of missile strikes on Wednesday in response to alleged chemical attacks in Syria, despite the risk of triggering a head-on clash with Damascus ally Russia. Russia’s ambassador to Lebanon, Alexander Zasypkin, said in the comments broadcast on Tuesday evening that any US missiles fired at Syria would be shot down and the launch sites targeted. "If there is a strike by the Americans then … the missiles will be downed and even the sources from which the missiles were fired," he told Hezbollah’s al-Manar TV. In the face of intense world outrage, the UN Security Council failed to agree a global response to the incident on Tuesday, after Washington and Moscow opposed each other’s rival motions to set up an international investigation into chemical weapons use in the seven-year-old conflict. Trump has made it clear he plans to make the Syrian regime of Bashar al-Assad, and perhaps his Russian and Iranian backers, pay for the latest alleged toxic gas ...
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