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Russian intelligence chief doubts Trump’s election pledges to fight terrorism 'sincere'

The US military fired 59 Tomahawk cruise missiles at an airfield in Syria’s Homs province on April 7 on orders issued by President Trump

MOSCOW, April 27. /TASS/. The US missile strike on the Syrian military airfield makes one question the possibility of international fight against terrorism, Director of Russia’s Foreign Intelligence Service, Sergey Naryshkin, said at the Moscow Conference on International Security on Thursday.

"With the advent of the new US administration, a glimmer of hope appeared that the situation in the Middle East would begin to return back to normal. However, the recent US Tomahawk strike on the Syrian airbase, which served as a foothold for the government forces’ offensive against terrorist positions, makes one question the sincerity of President Trump’s election pledges to make every effort to launch joint international fight against IS [Islamic State terror group, outlawed in Russia - TASS]," he said.

"All that we have seen so far is uncoordinated demonstration of force similar to the Mother of All Bombs blast in Afghanistan. If this is a signal for IS, it will apparently have no effect. If not, a reasonable question arises: whom was it sent to and why?" Naryshkin added.

The US military fired 59 Tomahawk cruise missiles at an airfield in Syria’s Homs province on April 7 on orders issued by President Donald Trump. The strike came in response to what Washington believes was the Syrian government’s use of chemical weapons in the Idlib province. The US authorities asserted that the alleged chemical attack was launched from that airfield.

Russia’s Defense Ministry said that on April 4 the Syrian air force had delivered an airstrike on the eastern outskirts of Khan Sheikhoun to destroy militant facilities used to produce chemical bombs. These bombs were sent to Iraq and were also used in Aleppo. Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Moscow considered the US missile attack as an act of aggression against a sovereign country.