Kremlin condemns U.S. airstrike in Syria
Russia strongly condemns the U.S. airstrike in Syria on a building linked to a pro-Iranian militia, said the Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova at the briefing.
"We call for unconditional respect for the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Syria. We strongly reject any attempt to turn Syrian territory into an arena for settling geopolitical differences," she said.
Earlier, the U.S. Defense Department reported on an airstrike in Syria on the orders of President Joe Biden. According to Washington, the strike was defensive in nature, as it was preceded by three attacks by militias on the U.S. military in Iraq.
U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said that in the strike Washington relied on intelligence provided by Iraq.
Russian presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov said the Kremlin was "very closely" monitoring the situation in Syria and was in contact with its Syrian counterparts. At the same time, he could not answer the question whether Washington notified Moscow about the strike.
Sergey Tsekov, a member of the Russian State Duma Committee for International Affairs, told RBC that the decision to launch an airstrike on Syrian territory was outrageous, noting that the strike was carried out on the territory of a sovereign state without the consent of the country's leadership.