Sergei Lavrov says United States not to strike Syria again

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United States president Donald Trump ordered cruise missile strikes on the Shayrat airbase in Syria last week after his administration accused Russian Federation of trying to cover up the role of Syrian leader Bashar Al Assad in the chemical weapons attack.

Lavrov said that the U.S. missile attack on a Syrian airfield was aimed at the regime change.

"The United States is hand in glove with the terrorists", he added.

The US State Department said Thursday that it amounted to a "war crime".

Spokesman Mark Toner also ridiculed the Syrian president's comments to AFP, describing them as "vintage Assad".

The British delegation to the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, the global group that polices adherence to a treaty banning such munitions, said samples taken from the attack had tested positive for sarin, Reuters reported.

"It wasn't attack because of what happened in Khan Sheikhoun", Assad said of the American missile strike on a Syrian airbase, "it's one event".

A father carried his daughter's body from a hospital in Khan Sheikhun, Syria last week, after she was killed by exposure to a nerve agent following a government air strike.

"They [the regime] admitted only to 1,300 tonnes, but we knew in reality they had almost double that", said General Sakat, who had been one of the most senior figures in the country's chemical weapons programme.

Other world powers have also condemned Assad for the April 4 attack - although Syrian ally Russian Federation continues to maintain there is insufficient evidence Assad carried out the attack.

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U.S. and Afghan forces at the site saw "no evidence of civilian casualties", he added. Ismail Shinwari said there is no civilian property near the airstrike location.

If you have turned on the television over the last week, you may have believed at first glance the USA had returned to a policy of "shock and awe" in the Middle East.

"Our firepower, our ability to attack the terrorists hasn't been affected by this strike". Trump's order last week to fire 59 Tomahawk missiles at a Syrian government-controlled air base adds to Moscow's overriding suspicion that Washington is willing to use force to promote regime change, regardless of who is in the White House.

It was the first direct USA military action against Assad's forces since Syria's civil war began six years ago, and led to a quick downward spiral in ties between Washington and Moscow.

Trump gave such criticism short shrift on Wednesday, saying: "I felt we had to do something about it". I do not doubt the USA military's ability to level opposing military forces, but as we saw in Iraq, new governments have difficulty picking up what's left of their respective countries and actually maintaining them independently. "Frankly, it's a tactic we've seen on Russia's part as well in the past", Toner told a daily press briefing.

After the US launched a Tomahawk missile barrage on a Syrian air base last week, Russian Federation announced that it was suspending observance of the memorandum that established the hotline.

Syria said the USA manufactured the chemical attack as an excuse to attack.

His remarks came at a news conference with his Iranian counterpart Javad Zarif, and Walid Muallem, who represents Syria's Assad regime, which is widely blamed for the deadly attack.

Zarif added, "We shall increase the level of cooperation on the global level".

According to independent monitors, hundreds of thousands of civilians have been killed in the war, mostly by the regime and its powerful allies, and millions have been displaced both inside and outside of Syria.

Lavrov that Moscow has asked Washington about the goal of the buildup and received assurances they were there to cut supply lines between the Islamic State group factions in Syria and Iraq.

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