World gives support to US air strike on Syria

Many world countries gave their support to U.S. air strikes on Syria on April 7. 

France and Germany will continue efforts through the United Nations to find a peaceful solution to the Syrian crisis, French President Francois Hollande said in a statement on Friday after telephone talks with German
Chancellor Angela Merkel.
   
The joint statement came after the United States fired missiles at a Syrian airbase from which it said a deadly
chemical weapons attack was launched this week.
   
"Assad bears full responsibility for this development," the statement said.

Israeli leaders welcomed the U.S. airstrikes in Syria, saying they sent a strong message that the Trump administration would not accept the use of chemical weapons and was a warning to other hostile states, including Iran and North Korea.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel stood fully behind the decision to fire more than 50 Cruise missiles at the airfield from where Washington said President Bashar al-Assad's forces launched a deadly chemical attack this week.

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe voiced support on Friday for U.S. military strikes against Syria after it launched deadly chemical weapons on a rebel-held area earlier this week.

"Many innocent people became victims from the chemical attacks. The international community was shocked by the tragedy that left many young children among the victims," Abe told reporters.

"Japan supports the U.S. government's determination to prevent the spread and use of chemical weapons," he said.


In a sharp escalation of the U.S. military role in Syria, two U.S. warships fired dozens of cruise missiles from the eastern Mediterranean Sea at the airbase controlled by President Bashar al-Assad's forces in response to the poison gas attack in a rebel-held area on Tuesday, U.S. officials said.

Britain gave its backing. 

"The U.K. government fully supports the U.S. action, which we believe was an appropriate response to the barbaric chemical weapons attack launched by the Syrian regime and is intended to deter further attacks," a government spokesman said. 

Turnbull said the strikes sent "a vitally important message" that the world would not tolerate the use of chemical weapons.

"The retribution has been proportionate and it has been swift," he told reporters in Sydney. "We support the United States in that swift action."

Turnbull said the military action was not designed to overthrow the Assad regime, although the reported use of chemical weapons did "raise questions as to whether there can be any role for Mr. Assad in any solution or settlement".

Turnbull called on Russia to do more to ensure peace in Syria.

French Foreign Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault said Russia and Iran needed to understand that supporting Assad made no sense and that the escalation of the U.S. military role in Syria was a "warning" to "a criminal regime".

“Use of chemical weapons is appalling and should be punished because it is a war crime," Ayrault told Reuters and France Info radio in the Mauritanian capital, Nouakchott, where he is on a diplomatic visit.

Indonesia, home to the world's largest Muslim population, said it also strongly condemned the use of chemical weapons in Syria.

"At the same time, Indonesia is concerned with unilateral actions by any parties, including the use of Tomahawk missiles, in responding to the chemical weapon attack tragedy in Syria,"

Foreign Ministry spokesman Armanatha Nasir said in a text message.

"Military actions, undertaken without prior authorisation of the U.N. Security Council, are not in line with international legal principles in the peaceful settlement of disputes, as stipulated in the U.N. Charter."

A spokesman for the Polish government said the United States was a guarantor of world peace and there were times when you needed to react.