国际英语资讯:Syria warns U.S. to calculate reactions in case of new aggression: official

DAMASCUS, July 3 -- Syria's Deputy Foreign Minister Faisal Mekdad said Monday that his government would not be surprised if the U.S. carried out a new attack on Syria, as "the crazy can do anything."

Mekdad's remarks came against the backdrop of a new escalation in the Syrian chemical file, with Washington alleging that the Syrian government is preparing for a new chemical attack.

On Monday, the White House said the United States had identified the Syrian government's potential preparations for another chemical weapons attack, warning of "a heavy price" if such attacks were conducted.

"The activities are similar to preparations the regime made before its April 4, 2017 chemical weapons attack," the White House said, referring to the April alleged chemical attack on the city of Khan Sheikhun in northern Idlib province.

Activists and the United States accused the Syrian army of carrying out the attack, while the Syrian government denied such allegation.

In the same month, the United States struck the Shayrat Air Base in central Syria with 59 Tomahawk missiles, saying the chemical attack was prepared in that base.

The Syrian government denied the accusations, stressing it has disposed of all of its chemical programs, when the chemical arsenal of Syria was handed over to the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) in 2013, and was declared destroyed in 2017.

But since the United States renewed the accusation last week, talks have re-emerged about the intention of Washington to conduct another attack, taking the chemical weapons issue as an unsubstantiated pretext.

Mekdad warned the United States to "precisely calculate the possible reactions," if it were to carry out a new aggression on Syria.

"The reactions of Syria and its allies will not be as it was before and this is what we said and what the military and political leadership in Russia also said," Mekdad said.

Speaking during a press conference in Damascus, Mekdad said that there was no moral justification of the April U.S. strike on Syria, "however, the crazy can do anything."

The Syrian official stressed again that his government is no longer having chemical weapons for military purposes.

He said the new pressure on Syria comes in the wake of the "recent field development in Syria," adding that the current time "is the best for the Syrian state," in terms of the situation on the ground in key Syrian areas.

Meanwhile, Mekdad accused the United States of being a beneficiary of terrorism.

"The United States and its allies invested in terrorism and the (last April) strike was premeditated against all those fighting terrorism in the region," he said.

"They aim to support a coup against the Syrian government, which is targeted due to its stances in the region against Israel," he said.

He added that al-Qaida terror network was created by the United States and the real face of terrorism was created by the consecutive U.S. administrations.