Iran Condemns US Missile Attack on Syria as Violation of Int’l Law
TEHRAN (Tasnim) – Iranian Foreign Ministry Spokesman Bahram Qassemi strongly condemned a recent missile attack by the US military on a Syrian government airfield, describing it as a dangerous unilateral move, which violated “indisputable norms of international law”.
In a statement released on Friday, Qassemi highlighted links between the recent US missile strikes and an earlier chemical attack in Syria’s rebel-held Idlib province, saying Washington has used the chemical attack, whose perpetrators are not known, as a pretext to launch an offensive against the Damascus government.
“The Islamic Republic of Iran, as the biggest victim of chemical weapons in contemporary history, condemns any use of chemical weapons, regardless of the perpetrators and victims and at the same time regards the use of this pretext to take unilateral measures as a dangerous and destructive (move) and a violation of peremptory norms of international law,” he noted.
The spokesman further emphasized that the US missile attack on the Syrian government will only strengthen the terrorists, who are on the verge of collapse and complicate the satiation in the Arab country and the region.
The US military attacked the Syrian government’s Shayrat Airfield near Homs with 59 tomahawk missiles on Thursday evening.
Officially announcing the strike, US President Donald Trump claimed that the targeted airfield had launched the chemical attack on the rebel-held area in Idlib.
Earlier on Thursday, Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Muallem said the country’s armed forces "did not and will not" use chemical weapons, even against extremist groups.
Syria has been gripped by civil war since March 2011 with various terrorist groups, including Daesh (also known as ISIS or ISIL), currently controlling parts of it.
According to a report by the Syrian Center for Policy Research, the conflict has claimed the lives of over 470,000 people, injured 1.9 million others, and displaced nearly half of the country’s pre-war population of about 23 million within or beyond its borders.
