MEP Mamikins calls US strike against Syria a gross provocation

  • 2017-04-10
  • BNS/TBT Staff

RIGA- The US missile strike on a Syrian airbase on April 7 was a gross provocation and demonstration of force, European Parliament member Andrejs Mamikins (Harmony) told BNS.

"One can only guess who ordered and staged this attack," the MEP from Latvia said, claiming that the earlier chemical attack on a rebel-held town in Syria was used as a pretext to blame Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad once again.

Mamikins believes that it would be unthinkable for the Syrian president to order an attack on his people at a time when the international conference on supporting Syria and the region was taking place in Brussels.

"You can call Assad as you like - a dictator or not, but he is definitely not an idiot. Assad would never deliberately order a chemical attack on his citizens on the eve of the international conference," Mamikins believes.

The MEP is convinced that with this attack U.S. President Donald Trump weakened those currently fighting terrorism, including Assad, and most probably used the missile strike to solve domestic political issues.

"I doubt that Trump is currently prepared to launch a serious military campaign against Assad," Mamikins said.

As reported, US forces fired a barrage of cruise missiles at a Syrian airbase on April 7 in response to what President Donald Trump called a "barbaric" chemical attack he blamed on the Damascus regime. The massive strike - the first direct US action against President Bashar al-Assad's government and Trump's biggest military decision since taking office - marked a dramatic escalation in American involvement in Syria's six-year civil war. The strike targeted radars, aircraft, air defense systems and other logistical components at the military base south of Homs in central Syria.