(VOVworld) – The US’s Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin said Friday that the US will soon announce new sanctions on Syria.

Victims of the attack on April 4 in the Damascus suburbs (Photo: Ammar Abdullah/Reuters)

The statement came after Washington blamed the chemical weapon attack by Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s government in Idlib in western Syria, which killed dozens of people. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said the US’s next action will depend on Syria’s response to an airstrike attack by the US forces against a military base in Damascus. Earlier, at an extraordinary meeting of the UN Security Council on Friday, US ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley said Washington is willing to carry out more military activities in Syria, adding that she hoped it is not necessary to do so.

Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev said on Friday that the US’s attack was illegal and he was worried about a military conflict between Russia and the US. The Russian Defense Ministry gave diplomatic notes to the US on Moscow’s decision to halt the hotline with the Pentagon in Syria since Saturday.

UN Political Affairs Chief Jeffrey Feltman said immediate action is needed to protect Syrian people, but it should be “rooted in the principles of the UN and international law”. In a statement on Friday, EU Diplomacy Chief Federica Mogherini said the Syrian conflict cannot be solved by military measures, and EU will support the negotiations in Syria to seek a political solution to the conflict.