UK Defence Secretary: Strikes Had Significant Impact On Syrian Regime
14 April 2018, 08:15
Gavin Williamson, the UK's defence secretary, says he doesn't think Britain will be in a position "where we're having to make further strikes".
Theresa May confirms British armed forces were involved in a coalition operation to target the Syrian regime's chemical weapons infrastructure.
The Prime Minister said: "We cannot allow the use of chemical weapons to become normalised - within Syria, on the streets of the UK, or anywhere else in our world."
French President Emmanuel Macron said the strikes targeted the "capacities of the Syrian regime to produce and use chemical weapons."
The UK's Defence Secretary told Tom Swarbrick: "We don't expect that we'll be a position where we're having to make further strikes.
"We have made it very clear to the Assad regime that actually the use of chemical weapons is completely unacceptable and there's a consequence for doing it.
"We believe that the strikes we have taken last night had a significant impact in terms of what the Syrian regime can do in the future.
"We had to take swift action to ensure that the Syrian regime doesn't believe it can continue to use chemical weapons against its own people.
"Acting with speed has been essential.
"We had to act swiftly, and we had to act with our allies."
