Sputnik - US Senator John McCain (R-AZ), the chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, has expressed in a statement his support for the US strikes on Syria and called for a new strategy in the region.




Earlier in the day, the United States, the United Kingdom and France have launched airstrikes at Syrian targets over reports of a chemical attack in the city of Duma, allegedly carried out by the Syrian government.
"I applaud the President for taking military action against the [Syrian President Bashar] Assad regime for its latest use of chemical weapons, and for signaling his resolve to do so again if these heinous attacks continue," the senator said in a statement.


McCain thanked the United Kingdom and France for also launching strikes and expressed hope that the strikes would "impose meaningful costs on Assad."
"To succeed in the long run, we need a comprehensive strategy for Syria and the entire region. The President needs to lay out our goals, not just with regard to ISIS, but also the ongoing conflict in Syria and malign Russian and Iranian influence in the region. Airstrikes disconnected from a broader strategy may be necessary, but they alone will not achieve U.S. objectives in the Middle East," McCain concluded.


Damascus has refuted the allegations of the attack, while Moscow has warned that the reports of the attack could be a provocation.

Russian Defense Ministry spokesman Maj. Gen. Igor Konashenkov said at a briefing on Friday that the video with the victims of the alleged Duma chemical attack receiving first aid, shared on the social media, was staged. According to the spokesman, the participants of the video were found, and they revealed the truth about the filming.