Syria reportedly pulls back from launching new chemical attack

Syria has reportedly backed down faced with a revival of the Franco-American “red lines” in Syria and is no longer preparing a sarin attack on areas under rebel control. US Defence Secretary James Mattis says it appears Syria had heeded the US warning issued on Monday that it would not let a new chemical attack go unanswered. The Syrian Ministry for National Reconciliation denied that it was making such preparations at the Al Shayrat airbase, the same base that was used for an alleged chemical attack in April, and repeated the claim Syria possessed no chemical weapons. The Russians also came to Syria’s defence, denouncing the warning and dismissing the White House assertions that a strike was being prepared as “unacceptable”, further raising tension between the two.