U.S. President Donald Trump demonstrated a new willingness
to use force against the regime after conducting cruise missile strike
targeting the Shayrat Airbase in Central Syria on April 6. The strikes came in
response to the regime’s use of sarin gas against the opposition-held town of
Khan Sheikhoun in Northern Syria on April 4 that marked one of its deadliest
chemical weapons attacks since the 2013 Sarin Attacks in Damascus. The U.S.
attempted to leverage its limited strikes against the regime to force Russia to
reveal the extent of its commitment to Iran and Syrian President Bashar
al-Assad.
The Kremlin rejected calls to distance itself from Assad
after U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson met with Russian Foreign Minister
Sergey Lavrov and Russian President Vladimir Putin on April 13. Russia also
vetoed a draft UN Security Council resolution outlining an investigation into
the regime’s culpability for chemical weapons attacks. The White House
nonetheless also messaged continuity in its military stance towards the Syrian
Civil War. Tillerson noted in an interview on April 11 that the “first
priority” remains the defeat of ISIS in Syria and warned against “violent
regime change” similar to Libya. U.S. Secretary of Defence James Mattis also
stated that the “military policy in Syria has not changed” and stressed that
the “rest of the campaign stays on track…exactly as it was before” the chemical
weapons attack.
