Havana, April 14 (RHC)-- Nations of the world and well-known personalities have repudiated the new attack of the United States against Syria, perpetrated early Saturday in coordination with the United Kingdom and France.
Russia's president Vladimir Putin criticized the U.S. and its allies for launching the strike without waiting for inspectors from the international chemical weapons watchdog to visit the area.
Putin said Saturday morning that Russia will call an emergency session of UN Security Council over the attack on Syria, adding that Washington had launched “an aggression against a sovereign state which is at the forefront of the fight against terrorism.”
And Russia's Ambassador to the United States, Anatoly Antonov, warned that the US strikes against Syria "will not be left without consequences."
"All responsibility for them rests with Washington, London and Paris," he said in a statement, adding "...a pre-designed scenario is being implemented. Again, we are being threatened."
Reports from Syria indicate that all the bases and facilities struck in the US-led attack had been evacuated by the Syrian government earlier this week, on prior warning from Russia of the strikes.
In Beijing also, the Chinese government voiced its opposition to military action in Syria and urged diplomacy to solve the political crisis, according to a foreign ministry response in the wake of US-led air-strikes.
The Iranian Foreign Ministry condemned the attack in strong terms and warned of the regional and infra-regional consequences it could generate, local media reported in Tehran.
In Latin America, the Guatemalan indigenous leader Rigoberta Menchú, winner of the Nobel Peace Prize, called on the countries that are part of the UN to intervene in the conflict to stop the operations of the United States, the United Kingdom and France in the Arab Republic.
The president of the National Constituent Assembly (ANC) of Venezuela, Delcy Rodriguez, slammed the 'Western warmongering guided by the American white supremacy' and urged to avoid war.
In Colombia, presidential candidate Gustavo Petro rejected the military action of the Western power, while former presidential candidate Piedad Córdoba asked the United Nations to intercede to prevent a tragedy.
The Communist Party of Argentina also denounced and condemned the attack against the people of Syria by US imperialism, with the support of the United Kingdom and France.
In the US, sources with the Pentagon said Saturday that a total of 105 missiles had been launched against three sites in Syria.
In the Syrian capital Damascus, immediately after the attack, hundreds of residents gathered at Omayyad square, celebrating what they said was the Syrian army’s success in shooting down or derailing some of the missiles. Many waved Syrian, Russian and Iranian flags. Some clapped their hands and danced, others drove in convoys, honking their horns in defiance.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has warned of the dangers of a full-blown military escalation in Syria.
Addressing the UN Security Council on Friday, Guterres cautioned against the situation in Syria spiralling out of control. “This is exactly the risk we face today, he said, that things spiral out of control.
"In Syria, we see confrontations and proxy wars involving several national armies, a number of armed opposition groups, many national and international militia, foreign fighters from everywhere in the world, and various terrorist organizations," he told the Security Council, which was convening at the request of Russia.
For eight years, the people of Syria have lived through a litany of horrors: atrocity crimes, sieges, starvation, indiscriminate attacks against civilians and civilian infrastructure, the use of chemical weapons, forced displacement, sexual violence, torture, detention and enforced disappearances, he said.
The UN Secretary General stressed that there is no military solution to the Syrian conflict. "The solution must be political, through the Geneva intra-Syrian talks."
