Qatar’s allowing missiles to be fired from airbase shameful: Syrian official

Syria has condemned the “shameful” stance of the rulers of Qatar in supporting the recent US-led airstrikes on Damascus and allowing a Qatari airbase to be used for a part of the operation.

A source at the Syrian Foreign and Expatriate Ministry told the official Syrian Arab News Agency (SANA) on Saturday that Qatar had allowed warplanes attacking Syria to take off from the US military’s al-Udeid airbase in the Persian Gulf emirate.

Al-Udeid airbase is the largest US military base in the Middle East. It also houses military personnel from the United Kingdom and other allies.

The United States had been using al-Udeid to support its military operations in Afghanistan and Middle Eastern countries such as Syria and Iraq.

The Syrian source said that it was not weird that rulers of Qatar were adopting such a stance as they had provided all forms of support to terrorist organizations to destabilize Arab countries, on top of which Syria.

“Adopting such stance, the Al Thani family has unequivocally demonstrated their denial of the Arab belongingness with them completely depending on enemies of the Arab Nation and this family shall shoulder the consequences of such cowardly policies and their outrageous betrayal, which requires our people in Qatar to put an end to the excessiveness of the rulers and hold them accountable for their foolish policies,” the source said.

On Saturday, Qatar confirmed its support to the joint airstrikes on Syria by the armed forces of the United States, Britain and France on the Arab country, which occurred one week after a suspected chemical weapons assault hit the town of Douma near Damascus.

The tiny Persian Gulf Sheikdom called for urgent measures to what it said protect the Syrian people and to disarm the Syrian government of the internationally banned weapons.

Syria came under attack one week after a suspected chemical weapons assault hit the town of Douma near Damascus.

Western countries blamed the incident on the Syrian government, but Damascus rejected the accusations as “chemical fabrications” made by the terrorists themselves in a bid to halt advances by pro-government forces.

Syria’s Foreign Ministry strongly condemned Saturday’s strikes as a “brutal, barbaric aggression,” saying they would only ignite “tensions in the world and pose threat to the international peace and security as a whole.”