US missile strike

After a week of tension the US missile strike on Syria finally came and went today.
Reports from Syria say that the operation is over, having lasted for around one hour.
Moreover this is consistent with what was said by Generals Mattis and Dunford during their Pentagon briefing.
The Pentagon briefing disclosed that “twice as many” cruise missiles were launched at Syria over the course of this strike than were launched against Al-Shayrat air base in April of last year.

US President Donald Trump ordered the missile strike on Syria’s Sharyat air base whilst he was actually hosting Chinese President Xi Jinping at his holiday home in Florida.
This fact would have put the Chinese in a difficult position, with the choice being whether to criticise the strike immediately, putting their President in the embarrassing position of appearing to quarrel with his host and of risking the collapse of the entire summit, or of waiting for Xi Jinping’s return to Beijing.  Wisely the Chinese settled on the second course.

Following a series of telephone conversations between the Foreign Ministers of Russia, Iran and Syria, the Russians have agreed to host in Moscow on Friday 14th April 2017 a meeting of the three countries’ foreign ministers.  Russian Foreign Minister Lavrov is also due to hold bilateral talks with Syrian Foreign Minister Muallem the day before this tripartite meeting takes place.

Yesterday, within hours of the US missile attack on Syria’s Sharyat air base, President Putin met with Russia’s Security Council to discuss the US attack.
Russia’s Security Council, for those who don’t know, is the highest decision making body of the Russian government.  It meets regularly every week under Putin’s chairmanship, and its remit covers every aspect of Russian policy.  This includes domestic and economic policy as well as foreign and defence policy.