<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
BEIRUT (AP) \u2014 Russian lawmakers have warned the United States that Moscow would view an airstrike on Syria as a war crime, saying it could trigger a direct military clash between the two former Cold War adversaries.<\/p>\n
Russia\u2019s ambassador to Lebanon went even further, saying any missiles fired at Syria would be shot down and the launching sites targeted \u2014 a stark warning of a potential major confrontation in Syria.<\/p>\n
U.S. President Donald Trump threatened military action after last weekend\u2019s suspected chemical attack on a rebel-held town near Damascus, which activists and rescuers say killed at least 40 people. The Syrian government and its ally Russia deny that such an attack happened.<\/p>\n
SEE ALSO: Trump cancels South America trip in sign Syria military strike imminent <\/strong><\/p>\n State news agency RIA Novosti on Wednesday quoted Andrei Krasov, deputy chairman of the State Duma\u2019s defense committee, as saying that Russia will treat a U.S. airstrike on Syria \u201cnot just as an act of aggression but a war crime of the Western coalition.\u201d<\/p>\n Vladimir Shamanov, a retired general who heads the defense affairs committee in the lower house of parliament, said in televised remarks Tuesday that a U.S. strike in Syria could hurt Russian servicemen and trigger retaliation.<\/p>\n He said that Russia has \u201cthe necessary means for that, and the Americans and their allies know that quite well.\u201d<\/p>\n Shamanov emphasized that a retaliatory Russian strike could target U.S. navy ships and aircraft. He added that the use of nuclear weapons is \u201cunlikely.\u201d<\/p>\n Russian Ambassador to Lebanon Alexander Zasypkin, meanwhile, told Hezbollah\u2019s Al-Manar TV station that any missiles fired at Syria would be shot down. He said he was referring to a statement by Russian President Vladimir Putin and the Russian armed forces chief of staff.<\/p>\n \u201cIf there is a strike by the Americans, then\u2026 the missiles will be downed and the source of the missiles targeted,\u201d Zasypkin said.<\/p>\n Meanwhile, European airspace authorities warned aircraft to be careful over the coming days when flying close to Syria because of possible military action against President Bashar Assad\u2019s forces.<\/p>\n The Eurocontrol airspace organization said that the European Aviation Safety Agency had sent a \u201cRapid Alert Notification\u201d that flight operators needed to consider the possibility of air or missile strikes into Syria.<\/p>\n U.S. officials have consulted with global allies on a possible joint military response to Syria\u2019s alleged poison gas attack.<\/p>\n In a notice posted to Eurocontrol\u2019s website, EASA said: \u201cDue to the possible launch of air strikes into Syria with air-to-ground and\/or cruise missiles within the next 72 hours, and the possibility of intermittent disruption of radio navigation equipment, due consideration needs to be taken.\u201d<\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Russian lawmakers have warned the United States that Moscow would view an airstrike on Syria as a war crime, saying it could trigger a direct military clash between the two former Cold War adversaries BEIRUT (AP) \u2014 Russian lawmakers have warned the United States that Moscow would view an airstrike on Syria as a war […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2809,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[34,164,267],"class_list":["post-2808","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-worlds","tag-politics","tag-syria","tag-war-conflict"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pornvas.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2808","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pornvas.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pornvas.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pornvas.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pornvas.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2808"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/pornvas.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2808\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pornvas.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2808"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pornvas.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2808"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pornvas.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2808"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}