Arab states and Israel on Friday applauded the overnight US Tomahawk missile strike on an air base in Syria, welcoming what they saw as an overdue show of resolve against the Assad regime and its main foreign patrons, Iran and Russia.
The attack comes after eight years of hands-off policies under former US president Barack Obama that saw Russia enter the war unchallenged on the Syrian government’s side in 2015. Officials in the Gulf states and Israel said that they believed US president Donald Trump was drawing a line of deterrence against what they see as hitherto unchecked Iranian and Russian-backed militarism in the region.
Across the Arab world, trending media posted on Twitter on Friday morning included songs celebrating the airstrikes, and coffee cup in which the dregs portrayed a likeness of Mr Trump. “America strikes the regime of Bashar”, was a popular hashtag in Saudi Arabia.