Syria conflict

Putin warns the West against further attacks
More air strikes against Syrian positions would "inevitably bring chaos", threatens Russian President Putin. France now wants to defuse the conflict with a new UN resolution.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has warned the US and its allies against further air strikes on Syrian positions. This would "inevitably cause chaos in international relations," Putin said on Sunday, according to the Kremlin in a telephone conversation with his Iranian counterpart Hassan Rohani.

The two leaders condemned the air raids on Saturday morning as a violation of the Charter of the United Nations. The bombing had "significantly affected the prospects for a political agreement in Syria," the statement from Moscow said.

In response to the alleged use of poison gas in the Syrian city of Duma, the US, Britain and France had fired a good hundred cruise missiles at night on three Syrian military installations intended to serve as chemical weapons research, production and storage sites.

The Syrian government and its allies, Russia and Iran, are using poison gas from government forces in the Duma. Moscow and Tehran are among the most important supporters of the Syrian ruler Bashar al-Assad. Both countries are also militarily intervening on the side of Assad in the civil war.

France's comprehensive draft resolution

After the air raids, Germany and France now want to launch a diplomatic offensive to end the civil war. Russia should also play an important role in this.

Already on Monday France wants to make a new attempt to defuse the Syrian conflict with a comprehensive UN resolution, as it was called from diplomatic circles in New York on Sunday. When it could come to a vote in the UN Security Council, was initially unclear. The starting position is extremely difficult, since four resolutions on Syria had failed there since Wednesday alone.

According to President Emmanuel Macron, the French draft is intended to deal with the most urgent questions in one go: The Syrian chemical weapons program is to be conclusively terminated and it is to be clarified who is responsible for recent poison gas attacks. A nationwide ceasefire and secure access for humanitarian workers should pave the way for a long-term political solution. The terrorist militia Islamic State (IS) is to be permanently defeated in the country.

France intends to press ahead with the diplomatic initiative on Monday at the meeting of EU foreign ministers in Luxembourg. Germany's Foreign Minister Heiko Maas (SPD) added that the federal government would use its channels to Russia in order to invoke a constructive attitude there.

Federal President Frank-Walter Steinmeier called on US and Russian presidents Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin to launch a joint peace initiative. "The big powers are more responsible, and a first step must be taken - Putin and Trump are guilty of the world," he told Bild am Sonntag.

Austria wants to talk again at the big table

The Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz pleads for a resumption of the Syrian peace talks. The conflict can not be resolved militarily, so "all responsible actors" would have to continue the negotiations that took place in Vienna in 2015, Kurz said. At that time, 20 different groups were involved.

US President Trump considered the military strike, which was apparently limited in consideration of Russian troops in Syria, to be a complete success. It was a "perfectly executed punch" Trump wrote in the short message service Twitter. The result could not have been better: "Mission accomplished!" British Prime Minister Theresa May called the action "limited, targeted and effective".

Syria's Assad was unimpressed. "The aggression will make Syria and the Syrians even more determined to continue fighting and smashing terror in every part of the country," Assad said on state news agency Sana. Iran's Supreme Leader and Assad ally Ali Khamenei said, "The attacks were a crime and the three heads of government involved in the attacks are accordingly criminals."

Meanwhile, on Saturday, the Syrian army created facts about the eastern Ghuta region, one of its besieged rebel areas since 2013. After the withdrawal of the last Islamist insurgents, she claimed to have full control there.

translation mirrors online