As it was to be expected the decision by the US president, Donald Trump, to launch, together with the UK and France,  air strikes on Syria has proved globally divisive. While some countries praising the military action others condemned it.

Russian president, Vladimir Putin, called the strikes “an act of aggression” that would exacerbate the humanitarian catastrophe in Syria. 

Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, called the US-led strikes on Syria a “military crime”. 

Germany’s chancellor, Angela Merkel, said the allied strikes in Syria were a “necessary and appropriate” response to what the US and its allies say was a recent chemical attack in the Syrian city of Douma. Merkel said Berlin viewed the US, UK and France had taken “responsibility in this way as permanent members of the UN security council ... to maintain the effectiveness of the international rejection of chemical weapons use and to warn the Syrian regime against further violations”.

Iraqi foreign minister said: “Such action could have dangerous consequences, threatening the security and stability of the region and giving terrorism another opportunity to expand after it was ousted from Iraq and forced into Syria to retreat to a large extent”. 

China’s foreign ministry called any military action that bypasses the UN security council a violation of international law, and reiterated that China believes that a political solution is the only realistic way out for the Syrian issue.

The European commission president, Jean-Claude Juncker, said those who rely on chemical warfare must be held to account by the world. Juncker added the suspected use of poison gas last week in the Syrian city of Douma was as he puts it a “heinous chemical weapons attack carried out by the Syrian regime”. He said the world “has the responsibility to identify and hold accountable those responsible” for the attack.

The Canadian prime minister, Justin Trudeau, who this week ruled out his country’s participation in military action in Syria, announced his unequivocal support for the targeted bombings. “Canada supports the decision by the United States, the United Kingdom and France to take action to degrade the Assad regime’s ability to launch chemical weapons attacks against its own people”.

Israel, which was recently accused by Iran of carrying out its own airstrikes on military bases in Syria, was among the first to praise the strikes.

Turkey’s foreign ministry said it welcomed the strikes as an “appropriate response”. Ankara said chemical weapons attacks that indiscriminately target civilians “constitute crimes against humanity” and should not go unpunished.

UN secretary- general, António Guterres, said in a statement that while use of chemical weapons was “abhorrent” and “horrendous”, but urged “all member states to show restraint in these dangerous circumstances and to avoid any acts that could escalate the situation and worsen the suffering of the Syrian people”.

As to the role of the three nations involved in the raids, the UK’s Ministry of Defence confirmed that four Tornado jets flew from Cyprus as part of the strikes on Homs.

Meanwhile the French defence ministry have said France fired 12 missiles from fighter jets and frigates as part of the coordinated air and sea raids. The French president, Emmanuel Macron, said the use of chemical weapons by the Syrian regime posed an “immediate danger for the Syrian people and our collective security”.