How Iran Will Retaliate Against 'Illegal and Inhuman' US Missile Attack on Syria

Iran Parliament Speaker Ali Larijani called for diplomatic and political steps to be taken in response to last week's deadly US missile attack on a Syrian airbase.

The Iranian news agency ISNA reported that Iran's Parliament Speaker Ali Larijani ordered the parliamentary commission on national security and foreign policy to consider possible diplomatic and political measures to retaliate following a recent US missile attack on a Syrian airbase.

Last Thursday, at least five people were killed and seven others injured after the United States launched 59 Tomahawk cruise missiles at the Syrian military airfield in Ash Sha'irat, located about 40 kilometers (25 miles) from the city of Homs.

US President Donald Trump said the attack was a response to the alleged use of chemical weapons in Syria's Idlib province on Tuesday, which Washington blames on the Syrian government.

The body of a plane burned as a result of the US missile attack on an air base in Syria. File photo

© Sputnik / Mikhail Voskresenskiy

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In an interview with Sputnik Persian, Iranian political analyst Reza Moghaddasi said that "the [retaliatory] measures being considered by the Iranian parliament will be in line with our legal and diplomatic tone," and that "similar measures had earlier been taken by the Iranian government in response to the illegal activity of the US."

Moghaddasi added that "after the US missile attack on Sha'irat airbase, the Syrian crisis split into two periods — before and after the American aggression."

According to him, "the Iranian parliamentarians are trying to draw the attention of their strategic partners to the search for solutions to the Syrian crisis."

"A member of international organizations, Iran is urging its allies and other international parliaments to also respond to this inhuman and illegal US attack on Syria," Moghaddasi said.

"Having merged with countries that conduct an unprecedented fight against terrorism, we can jointly develop an action plan in response to this US attack. First of all, Iran will count on Russia's reciprocity. After all, both Iran and Russia are important players possessing important instruments of influence in the region, in the face of policy pursued by the United States," he added.

He said that "the Americans themselves must understand that they will always get an adequate response to their unauthorized and unilateral actions from other states that will never keep silent."

Russia and the Islamic Republic of Iran.
— Condemned the recent US missile attack on Syria. pic.twitter.com/0J075OEZYa

— Inform the world (@81g5Z6UCtDxERfu) 8 апреля 2017 г.

Even though the US and its allies will never admit their guilt for this illegal missile strike, it should be remembered that Iran, in addition to legal and diplomatic measures, has other stronger levers of pressure in the region," according to Moghaddasi.

"Iran can use this leverage against the illegal and inhuman US attack [on the Syrian airbase] at any time," he concluded.

Meanwhile, Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has described US missile strike against the Syrian Ash Sha'irat military airfield as a strategic mistake.

"What Americans did was a strategic mistake, and they are repeating the same mistakes done by their predecessors," Khamenei said at a meeting with senior Iranian Armed Forces commanders in Tehran, as quoted by the Fars news agency.

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