LONDON, April 7 (Xinhua) -- Jeremy Corbyn, leader of Britain's main opposition Labour Party, warned Friday that the U.S. air strike on a Syrian government air base risked escalating war in the Middle East region.
Speaking in response to the strikes on a Syrian air base, said Tuesday's horrific chemical attack requires urgent independent UN investigation and those responsible must be held to account.
"But unilateral military action without legal authorisation or independent verification risks intensifying a multi-sided conflict that has already killed hundreds of thousands of people," he said, adding, "What is needed instead is to urgently reconvene the Geneva peace talks and unrelenting international pressure for a negotiated settlement of the conflict."
"The British government should urge restraint on the Trump administration and throw its weight behind peace negotiations and a comprehensive political settlement," Corbyn said.
The U.S. military on Thursday launched a targeted missile strike at a Syrian military airfield in its first direct assault on the army of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad since Syrian crisis began six years ago.
The strike was ordered by U.S. President Donald Trump, said a Pentagon statement, adding that the assault was in response to the alleged Syrian government's chemical weapons attack on Tuesday in the rebel-held town of Khan Sheikhoun, which killed over 70 people.
Syrian Foreign Minister Walid al-Moallem said early on Thursday that the Syrian airstrike on a rebel-held town in Idlib Province struck a rebel depot containing chemical materials, denying that the air force fired toxic gas during the attack.
Moscow considers the U.S. missile strike as an "aggression against a sovereign state" under a far-fetched pretext, saying it violates international law, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Friday.
The Syrian presidential office slammed the U.S. missile attack on a Syrian airbase as "reckless and irresponsible."
