Several Lebanese leaders who are closely allied with the regime of Syrian president Bashar al Assad condemned the US-led airstrikes that took place on Saturday .
President Michel Aoun, a close ally of the Iranian backed Hezbollah said the attack “will not contribute” to a political solution for the Syrian crisis, stressing that Lebanon “refuses hostility against Arab states no matter what the reasons were.”
“What happened in Syria today at dawn doesn’t contribute to finding a political solution for the Syrian crisis. Dialogue is necessary to stop deterioration, and end outside interference that have further complicated the crisis,” the Presidential media office quoted Aoun as on saying in a tweet.
The President added: “Lebanon refuses attacks at any Arab state no matter what the reasons were. The latest developments in Syria will only involve world powers in the Syrian crisis.”
Similarly the AMAL Movement which is headed by Speaker Nabih Berri another close ally of Hezbollah issued a statement Saturday, condemning the joint Western attack at Syria, and describing it as “flagrant violation of international law, and a blatant attack on the Syrian state, the founding member of the United Nations.”
The statement said: “The tripartite aggression opens the door wide to make the region a war zone which could have serious consequences on international peace and security.
“Amal movement and all honorable people can not dissociate themselves from targeting Syria, mainly that this aggression affects the Middle East, and dubiously coincides with the liberation of large areas of Syria’s geography of the power of terrorism,” added the statement.
The Hezbollah militant group which is headed by Hassan Nasrallah sharply condemned the US- led air strikes saying they would not achieve their objectives.
“America’s war against Syria, and against the region’s peoples and resistance movement, will not achieve its aims,” the group said in a statement published on its War Media Channel.
Hezbollah sent thousands of its fighters to Syria to support the Syrian regime against the rebels . Over one thousand fighters were returned to Lebanon in coffins
President Donald Trump on Saturday declared “Mission Accomplished” for a U.S.-led allied missile attack on Syria’s chemical weapons program.
“A perfectly executed strike,” Trump tweeted after U.S., French and British warplanes and ships launched more than 100 missiles nearly unopposed by Syrian air defenses. “Could not have had a better result. Mission Accomplished!”
The nighttime Syria assault was carefully limited to minimize civilian casualties and avoid direct conflict with Syria’s key ally, Russia, but confusion arose over the extent to which Washington warned Moscow in advance. The Pentagon said it gave no explicit warning. The U.S. ambassador in Moscow, John Huntsman, said in a video, “Before we took action, the United States communicated with” Russia to “reduce the danger of any Russian or civilian casualties.”
Dana W. White, the chief Pentagon spokeswoman, said that to her knowledge no one in the Defense Department communicated with Moscow in advance, other than the acknowledged use of a military-to-military hotline that has routinely helped minimize the risk of U.S.-Russian collisions or confrontations in Syrian airspace. Officials said this did not include giving Russian advance notice of where or when allied airstrikes would happen.
Russia has military forces, including air defenses, in several areas of Syria to support President Bashar Assad in his long war against anti-government rebels.
Russia and Iran called the use of force by the United States and its allies a “military crime” and “act of aggression.” The U.N. Security Council met to debate the strikes, but rejected a Russian resolution calling for condemnation of the “aggression” by the three Western allies.
Trump’s U.N. ambassador, Nikki Haley, told the session that the president has made it clear that if Assad uses poison gas again, “the United States is locked and loaded.”
The strikes “successfully hit every target,” White told reporters at the Pentagon. The military said there were three targets: the Barzah chemical weapons research and development site in the Damascus area, a chemical weapons storage facility near Homs and a chemical weapons “bunker” a few miles from the second target.
The United States, Britain and France carried out a wave of punitive strikes against Bashar Assad’s Syrian regime on Saturday in response to alleged chemical weapons attacks that President Donald Trump branded the “crimes of a monster.”
The strikes hit three targets near Damascus — a scientific research center, a storage facility and command post — and a chemical weapons storage facility near Homs.
Syrian surface to air missile batteries had attempted to fire back, but there were no initial reports of allied losses, reports said.
Syrian state media said air defenses were activated to block the attack as it published images of smoke clouds hanging over the capital.
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