Tensions between the United States and Russia escalated over the weekend after President Trump’s national security adviser John Bolton warned the administration would react “very strongly” in case Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad again uses chemical weapons in the upcoming offensive against Sunni Islamist rebels in the northwestern Idlib Province.
Bolton told reporters in Jerusalem last week the U.S. is very “concerned about the possibility that Assad may use chemical weapons again.”
“Just so there’s no confusion here, if the Syrian regime uses chemical weapons we will respond very strongly and they really ought to think about this a long time,” Bolton said after his meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu.
On Friday, Bolton told his Russian counterpart Nikolai Patrushev that the US response to a new chemical attack by the pro-Assad coalition “will be stronger this time” Bloombergreported.
Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov subsequently warned the U.S. not to take “reckless moves” in Syria.
“We warn the Americans and their allies against taking new reckless steps in Syria,” Ryabkov told the RIA news agency adding that Russia remains committed to “the total elimination of terrorist epicenters in Syria and the return of this country to a normal life.”
The Russian warning came after the Bosporus Observer spotted an unusual number of Russian warships which passed through the waterway in Turkey on their way to the Syrian port of Tartus, Russia’s only navy port on foreign soil.
One of the ships is Admiral Essen, a frigate armed with Kalibr SS-N-27 missiles which is now the fifteenth Russian warship stationed in Syrian waters.
The move by the Russian navy followed a Tass report which quoted Russian Defense Ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov saying that the United States, the United Kingdom, and France are making preparations for what he dubbed a “ provocation” and an “act of aggression against the Russian military” in Syria. READ MORE
