*UPDATES WITH SUPREME LEADER'S CONDEMNATION
By Hussein al-Qabani
ISTANBUL (AA) – Iran on Saturday strongly condemned a joint airstrike by the U.S., Britain and France against Syrian regime’s chemical sites in the wake of a suspected chemical attack that killed dozens outside the capital Damascus.
In a statement, the Iranian Foreign Ministry said the U.S. and its allies “will assume the responsibility for the regional and trans-regional consequences of this adventurism “.
“Iran is opposed to the use of chemical weapons on the basis of religious, legal and ethical standards, while at the same time it … strongly condemns [using this] as an excuse to commit aggression against a sovereign state,” said the statement cited by local media.
Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, for his part, denounced the airstrikes as a “murder”.
In a televised speech, Khamenei accused U.S. President Donald Trump, French President Emmanuel Macron and UK Prime Minister Teresa May of being “criminals “.
“The attack this morning against Syria is a crime, ” he said. “The American president, the French president and the British prime minister are criminals. ”
On Friday night, the U.S. President Donald Trump announced that the U.S., the U.K. and France jointly launched strikes targeting the Assad regime's chemical weapons capabilities after a suspected chemical attack killed dozens outside of Damascus.
The joint strike came after the White Helmets, a civil defense agency, blamed the Assad regime for the chemical attack, which it said killed 78 civilians and injured hundreds of others.
Iran is a major supporter of the Bashar al-Assad regime, whose forces violently cracked down on pro-democracy protests in 2011, triggering a deadly civil war that killed thousands.
Russia, another major supporter of the Assad regime, has also denounced the U.S.-led airstrikes.
