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Strike on Syria has demonstrated West’s silliness, says Czech president

According to the Czech leader, Saturday’s strike on Syria by the US, Great Britain and France has dramatically destabilized the situation in that country that had begun to show signs of improvement

PRAGUE, April 15. /TASS/. The missile strike on Syria delivered by the United States, France and the United Kingdom has only demonstrated the West’s silliness, Czech President Milos Zeman said in an interview with the Frekvince radio station on Sunday.

""It [the strike on Syria] was a stupid thing," he said. "This is the mildest word I can say about that."

"The West has ruined the Middle East in an unimaginable way. Take Iraq, when it was alleged that it had weapons of mass destruction. These allegations proved to be false. We learnt no lesson from that operation that claimed numerous lives, including of American soldiers. After that, we made another silly thing called Libya: ‘thanks’ to that intervention, that country has no government now and the Libyan territory is used as a transit route for illegal refuges to Europe," Zeman said.

According to the Czech leader, Saturday’s strike on Syria by the US, Great Britain and France has dramatically destabilized the situation in that country that had begun to show signs of improvement. "I would like to draw attention that refugees begin to return to Syria. It is a positive news. But the cowboy project impedes this return," he stressed.

He stressed that the strike had been delivered in violation of the recognized international norms. "My opinion is as this: a military attack on any country can only be conducted by a relevant mandate of the United Nations Security Council. The only exclusion can be a strike on Islamists, like it was in Afghanistan. This is not the case with Syria," he added.

Strike on Syria

According to the Russian defense ministry, the missile strike on Syria’s military and civilian infrastructure facilities was delivered by US warplanes and naval ships in cooperation with the British and French air forces in the small hours on Saturday.

The ministry reported that a total of 103 cruise and air-to-surface missiles had been fired, 71 of them were shot down by Syria’s air defense units.

The United States, the UK and France said the strikes had been a response to an alleged chemical attack in Syria’s Douma.

Some non-governmental organizations, including White Helmets, claim that chemical weapons were used in Douma, Eastern Ghouta, on April 7. According to the statement uploaded to the organization’s website on April 8, chlorine bombs were dropped on the city to kill dozens and poison other local civilians who had to be brought to hospital.

The Russian foreign ministry dismissed that as fake news. The Russian defense ministry stated that White Helmets were an unreliable source, notorious for disseminating falsehoods. The Russian center for the reconciliation of conflicting parties on April 9 examined Douma to find no traces of chemical weapons.