Thanks for the heads up:
A Kremlin statement said Putin and Rouhani agreed that the Western strikes had damaged the chances of achieving a political resolution in the multi-sided, seven-year conflict that has killed at least half a million people.
"Vladimir Putin, in particular, stressed that if such actions committed in violation of the U.N. Charter continue, then it will inevitably lead to chaos in international relations," a Kremlin statement said.
So get ready. Russia and Iran haven't given up stirring up and supporting violence in the Middle East. Assad may or may not refrain from using chemical weapons again; but Russia and Iran are not deterred from creating chaos in the Middle East.
It's easy to publicly predict what you've privately ordered your people to carry out.
On a not totally unrelated subject, I'm hearing that Russia "blinked" by not hitting our ships that launched the strike. I don't believe that is accurate given that the threat came from Russia's ambassador to Lebanon, which is not exactly Gospel from the Kremlin:
Russia’s ambassador to Lebanon said any U.S. missiles fired at Syria would be shot down and the launch sites targeted, a step that could trigger a major escalation in the Syrian war.
I'd say the ambassador got a bit ... over-enthusiastic. Unless I missed a more authoritative statement, that is hardly evidence of "blinking."
God help us if every utterance by one of our ambassadors is elevated to a prediction of state policy.
