So, the world is counting the hours to see whether the US and its allies will launch a military strike on Syria. If this war plan goes ahead, the attack will be furious - and the repercussions grave, as Russia sternly warned this week. Indeed, we are talking about the very real danger that any US-led military action against Syria will rapidly escalate into a region-wide, or even world war. [...]

British Prime Minister Theresa May is reportedly not keen on joining the US in its potential strike against Syria. The PM told Donald Trump she will not act until there's more evidence of Syria's culpability, the Times reports. On Monday, US President Donald Trump said that he was "very strongly, very seriously" considering a military option in Syria, promising to make a "major decision" within up [...]

Two ex-British ambassadors questioned claims that Assad is behind a chemical attack that killed dozens of Syrians. Peter Ford and Craig Murray expressed doubt, urging the UK government not to rush into a war without proof. Former British ambassador to Syria Peter Ford, speaking during a heated interview on BBC Radio Scotland, believes that the reported chemical attack in Douma may not have been co [...]

Responding to a threat from US President Donald Trump, who said Russia should prepare for “nice new and smart missiles” launched by America at Syria, Moscow said if the weapons were smart, they would target terrorists. “Smart missiles should fly towards terrorists, not [Syria’s] lawful government, which has spent several years fighting against international terrorism on its territory,” R [...]

Donald Trump warned Russia to "get ready" after Moscow vowed to shoot any missiles fired at Syria down. "They will be coming, nice and new and smart," Trump tweeted. The tweet appears to be an unofficial announcement of the "major decisions" which Trump said Washington would soon be making regarding the alleged chemical attack in Syria. [...]

The Russian military reserves the right to shoot down missiles and destroy launch sites in the event of US aggression against Syria, Moscow's envoy to Lebanon Alexander Zasypkin has warned. Zasypkin stressed that “the Russian forces will confront any US aggression on Syria, by intercepting the missiles and striking their launch pads,” al-Manar TV website reported, citing the envoy. [...]

Minutes before warning that Washington was leading the world towards “sad and serious events” in Syria, Russia’s envoy to the UN exchanged pleasantries and even kisses with US envoy Nikki Haley, a video shows. Before the UN Security Council failed on Tuesday to pass three separate resolutions on an alleged chemical attack in Eastern Ghouta, Vassily Nebenzia, Russia’s ambassador to the UN, [...]

After its soldiers conducted a massacre against unarmed protesters in Gaza, Israeli leaders should be prosecuted by the International Criminal Court, argues Marjorie Cohn. On March 30, Israel Defense Forces (IDF) soldiers shot 773 unarmed Palestinian protesters in Gaza, killing 17 and wounding 1,400. Twenty remain in critical condition. The protesters were marching to demand the internationally ma [...]

From the Archives:  As President Trump faces opposition from his generals to pull U.S. troops from Syria, here's a look back to a similar fix another new president had gotten himself into, as Ray McGovern reported on March 28, 2009. I was wrong. I had been saying that it would be naïve to take too seriously presidential candidate Barack Obama’s rhetoric regarding the need to escalate the war [...]

From the Archive: As Israeli military has killed dozens of unarmed protesters near the border at which they are fenced into Gaza, Israeli leaders may feel they are once again “mowing the grass” as Elizabeth Murray recalls in this updated piece originally published on November 16, 2012. [...]

The EU won't support the Nord Stream 2 project as it attaches great significance to the gas pipelines going through Ukraine in context of diversification of supply routes, that's the message from the head of the European Energy Commission Dominik Ristori. Sputnik discussed this with Justin Dargin, global energy scholar at the University of Oxford. [...]

The grandiose construction of the century has been completed; the world’s longest sea bridge connecting Hong Kong, Zhuhai and Macau will be opened this year. The chief engineer and the inspiration behind the project, 43-year-old Zhang Jinwen told Sputnik about how they started designing the bridge 18 years ago, the difficulties that the engineers had encountered in building one of the world’s [...]

ANKARA (Sputnik) - Turkish President Recep Tayyip Ergodan reaffirmed on Monday Ankara’s determination to purchase Russian S-400 Triumf air defense systems despite the new US sanctions against Russia's state arms exporter Rosoboronexport. [...]

The Russian Foreign Ministry has commented on the mass protests of Palestinians on the Israeli-Gaza border called the Great March of Return that has lead to more than 1,000 being injured. Russia considers that the indiscriminate use of force against the civilian population on the border between Israel and the Gaza Strip to be unacceptable and calls upon Palestinians and Israelis to refrain from st [...]

Relatives of the Skripals are worried that Sergei and Yulia are being held in Britain against their will, and the daughter is not allowed to express her real feelings even in a telephone conversation with her cousin. The former intelligence agent’s cousin, 65-year-old Natalia Pestova, who lives in Siberia, has spoken out amid reports that the father and daughter could be granted political asylum [...]

The Turkish government has clashed with the US and other NATO members on a number of occasions in the past few years, raising questions over the country's membership of the military bloc and its future relations with the West. [...]

The White Helmets, which claim to be an impartial NGO, saving civilians in war-torn Syria, have repeatedly been busted using false videos of their daily rescue operations. The Syrian Civil Defense, also known as the White Helmets, has published several clips and pictures, showing the alleged aftermath of the chemical attack in the city of Douma in Eastern Ghouta. [...]

US Defense Secretary James Mattis has not ruled out the possibility of launching airstrikes against Syria in response to an alleged chemical attack in the militant-held town of Douma. Speaking with reports on Monday, Mattis said he wouldn't "rule out anything right now" after being asked if the US was mulling strikes against Syrian President Bashar Assad. [...]

Two Israeli F-15 fighters targeted Syria’s T-4 airbase in Homs province, the Russian Defense Ministry said on Monday. The jets fired eight guided missiles, but five of them were shot down before they hit the airfield. In a statement on Monday, the Russian military said: “Two Israeli Air Force F-15 jets fired eight guided missiles at the T-4 airfield.” [...]

Russian Energy Minister Aleksandr Novak said the country is considering an option of payments for oil in national currencies, in particular with Turkey and Iran. According to him, both countries are interested but there is also a matter of conversion of currencies and their further use. [...]

It would be illogical for the Syrian government, which previously seems to have acted strategically, to suddenly launch a chemical attack on Douma amid its successful recapturing of territory, experts told RT. [...]

The US was the only country in the world to oppose a resolution calling for Israel to be held accountable for war crimes, at the 29th regular session of the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC), held from 15 June to 3 July 2015. The US voted against “ensuring accountability and justice for all violations of international law in” the Occupied Palestinian Territories (OPT). [...]