Australia poised to step in on Syria

PRIME Minister Malcolm Turnbull has not ruled out joining future military action in Syria, as the United States warned it was “locked and loaded’’ if the government of Bashar al-Assad deployed chemical weapons again.

A day after the United States, France and the UK launched 105 missiles onto Syrian chemical weapons facilities, Mr Turnbull fired a scathing broadside at Russia for propping up the al-Assad regime and failing to stop it deploying chemical weapons against its own people.

“Russia needs to act responsibly. The Syrian regime is utterly dependent on Russia for its security, for its very existence, and the fact is that chemical weapons have now been used on several occasions in very recent times,’’ Mr Turnbull said.

“The fact is, Russia should not allow it to happen

“It’s time that Russia played a responsible role. It has all of the influence and authority over the Syrian Government that it needs to ensure that these crimes are not committed.’’

Australia’s fleet of Super Hornet fighter jets came back to Australia in January after two years deployed with coalition allies fighting terror group Islamic State in Iraq and Syria.

Mr Turnbull did not rule out a renewed Australian involvement if America or its allies asked for further resources.

“There are no Australian assets involved in this attack as it happens. At the present time our air force assets are not available in the Middle East,’’ he said.

“But obviously we work very closely with our partners and our allies and we are committed to the global resolution to stop the criminal use, the shocking use of chemical weapons.’’

Russia and America continued to face off yesterday, trading insults and threats as international inspectors arrived in Damascus to carry out investigations into a suspected chemical weapons attack in the suburb of Douma that killed 75 people, some of them children, on April 7.

President Donald Trump declared “mission accomplished” after three apparent chemical weapons facilities — one in Damascus and two near Homs — were wiped out by the strikes.

And US Ambassador to the United Nations, Nikki Haley, said while she was confident the Syrian government’s chemical weapons program had been “crippled,’’ she warned of further action in response to any further attacks.

“We are prepared to sustain this pressure if the Syrian regime is foolish enough to test our will,’’ she said.

“I spoke to the president this morning, and he said, ‘If the Syrian regime uses this poisonous gas again, the United States is locked and loaded.’”

Russia condemned the air strikes and attempted again to claim the initial gas attack was staged, describing “diplomacy of mythmaking, hypocrisy and falsehoods” from the allies.

Russia’s US Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia accused the US of warmongering and “hooliganism”.

“Why are you seeking to plunge the Middle East into such difficulties, provoking one conflict after another, pitting one state against another?” he said.

“I hope that hot heads will cool down and we can rebuild what has been destroyed.”

The UN Security Council rejected an attempt by Russia for an emergency resolution calling for condemnation of the “aggression” by the US and its allies against Syria.

Meanwhile, Mr Trump labelled the allied efforts a victory.

“A perfectly executed strike last night,” he tweeted.

“Thank you to France and the United Kingdom for their wisdom and the power of their fine Military. Could not have had a better result. Mission Accomplished!”

NATO yesterday unanimously backed the strike, with Secretary-general Jens Stoltenberg declaring it was the only practical response to the use of chemical weapons.

In total, the coalition deployed 105 missiles against the three targets and were met by little resistance from Syria, which launched about 40 surface-to-air intercept missiles, but not until the strike was nearly over.

Russia had earlier claimed that the Syrian regime, which it arms, has shot down ‘’71 of 103’’ missiles fired.

American Lieutenant General Kenneth McKenzie said there were no indications of civilian casualties from the allied strike, although the mainly ballistic, Syrian counter-attack missiles had “landed somewhere”, and the damage was being assessed.

“None of our aircraft or missiles involved in this operation were successfully engaged by Syrian air defences, and we have no indication that Russian air defence systems were employed,” Gen McKenzie said.

“We are confident that all our missiles reached their targets. At the end of our strike mission, all our aircraft safely returned to their bases.”

Mr Turnbull, who files to Europe this week for meetings with Commonwealth leaders, UK Prime Minister Theresa May and the German Chancellor Angela Merkel, urged Russia to ensure weapons inspectors who arrived a short time ago in Damascus could thoroughly investigate the April 7 attack, which the Syrian regime denies it carried out.

“The use of chemical weapons is a crime,’’ he said.

“It cannot be tolerated and we call on Russia which is the sponsor of Syria to use its influence to ensure that this most recent chemical weapons attack, this most recent atrocity by the Assad government in Douma … this shocking crime, is thoroughly investigated.

Mr Turnbull also rebuked the Russians over the apparent poisoning of former Russian spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia with a nerve agent in the UK town of Salisbury on May 4.

The Russians have denied responsibility and claim the pair were attacked with a chemical weapon held by the US and UK.

Mr Turnbull said he had been speaking to Mrs May about the use of chemical weapons in Syria, or “on a park bench in Salisbury in the United Kingdom’’.

“We have discussed the use of a nerve agent by agents of Russia or by Russia directly in Salisbury and of course we made a co-ordinated response of expelling Russian diplomats,’’ he said.

“Russia is a member of the United Nations Security Council, it claims to be against the use of chemical weapons.

“It should stop all the denials and the pretence that it wasn’t an action by the Syrian government and ensure the chemical weapons are destroyed, that the ability of the regime to use chemical weapons is eliminated, and that this type of criminal conduct does not occur again.’’