The attack on Saturday in the Damascus suburb of Douma has not been confirmed to be the result of a chemical weapon.
Defense Secretary Jim Mattis said on Wednesday that the United States is still assessing the intelligence on the suspected chemical attack, but that military planning was proceeding.
“We stand ready to provide military options if they’re appropriate, as the president determined,” he said.
The World Health Organization said on Wednesday that there were reports of about 500 people in the Damascus suburb of Douma who have symptoms similar to people exposed to toxic chemicals. It said about 70 people had died while taking shelter in basements and 43 of them had signs of being exposed to “highly toxic chemicals.”
The United Nations Security Council, on Tuesday, considered but did not approve rival resolutions from the United States and Russia regarding how to determine who is responsible for the attack.
Mr. Trump’s comments about poor relations with Russia echoed what the Russian foreign minister, Sergey V. Lavrov, said recently in response to the wave of diplomatic expulsions of Russians from the United States and other countries, according to a Reuters report. The expulsions were a coordinated response to the poisoning in Britain of a former Russian spy and his daughter. Since then, analysts have said the Balkans could become a battleground for a new Cold War.
The tough talk on Russia, when it comes to Syria, is a strikingly different tone for Mr. Trump, who has long pushed for improved relations with the Kremlin. Recently, Mr. Trump praised Mr. Putin for his re-election and even invited him to the White House.
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Later on Wednesday morning, Mr. Trump clarified his assessment of the poor relations with Russia in another tweet, blaming the decline in Washington-Moscow ties on the ongoing investigation into Russia’s meddling in the 2016 election.
Much of the bad blood with Russia is caused by the Fake Corrupt Russia Investigation, headed up by the all Democrat loyalists, or people that worked for Obama. Mueller is most conflicted of all (except Rosenstein who signed FISA Comey letter). No Collusion, so they go crazy!
—
Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump)
April 11, 2018
Russia has been a dominant theme during Mr. Trump’s entire presidency, particularly with the appointment of a special counsel to investigate Russia’s election interference.
The president repeated his frustrations about the ongoing inquiry, which he said was led by Democrats or others who worked for former President Barack Obama.
Earlier this week, the F.B.I. raided the offices and hotel room of Mr. Trump’s personal attorney, Michael D. Cohen, enraging the president, who called it an “attack on our country in a true sense.” Mr. Trump, however, has not used similarly strong language about Russia’s election activities which started as early as 2014.
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When it comes to Syria, however, Mr. Trump has blamed Mr. Putin for supporting the Syrian regime. Mr. Trump called the suspected chemical attack a “barbaric act” and suggested Mr. Putin bears some responsibility. “He may, and if he does, it’s going to be very tough, very tough,” Mr. Trump said on Monday. “Everybody’s going to pay a price. He will, everybody will.”
After Mr. Trump’s series of tweets Wednesday morning, Mr. Putin’s spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, said, “We don’t participate in Twitter diplomacy. We advocate serious approaches.” Mr. Peskov’s comments were reported by the Interfax news agency.
Mr. Trump canceled a planned trip to Latin America later this week in order to oversee an American response to Syria, the White House said. And the president met with his military commanders on Monday to discuss options.
But publicly discussing American military plans is in contrast to how he has said he would conduct himself as commander in chief.
During tensions with North Korea in April of 2017, he said in an interview on “Fox Friends” that he would not say whether he would order a strike if the rogue nation continued conducting missile tests.
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“I don’t want to telegraph what I am doing or what I am thinking,” Mr. Trump said. “I am not like other administrations, where they say, ‘We are going to do this in four weeks.’ It doesn’t work that way. We’ll see what happens.”
That was the kind of message that Mr. Trump repeatedly delivered as a presidential candidate, mocking former President Barack Obama for giving adversaries too much information by setting timelines for withdrawal from combat zones.
And, indeed, while he has not set a public withdrawal deadline for American forces in Syria the way Mr. Obama did for other combat zones, just last week Mr. Trump set a private one that quickly became public when he told military commanders that ideally he wanted to pull troops out of Syria within a few months.
While Mr. Trump’s tweet did not disclose the exact date and time of an American missile strike, Mr. Assad’s allies are lining up to back the Syrian regime.
The top adviser to Iran’s supreme leader said on Wednesday that Tehran would support Damascus against any foreign aggression, Iran’s state television reported.
“Iran backs Syria in its fight against America and the Zionist regime,” Ali Akbar Velayati, the supreme leader’s adviser, told state television during a visit to eastern Ghouta in Syria. Iranian officials call Israel “the Zionist regime.” Mr. Velayati said of the United States, “Their habit is to threaten constantly and the only thing they know how to do is bombing, haven’t Syria and Iran been bombed before?”
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