TEHRAN – Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif condemned on Friday the U.S. airstrike against a Syrian airbase, saying it is the “time to stop hype and cover-ups”.

“Not even two decades after 9/11, U.S. military fighting on same side as al-Qaida and ISIS in Yemen and Syria. Time to stop hype and cover-ups,” he tweeted.

Zarif said in a separate post on Twitter, “U.S. aids Saddam’s use of CW against Iran in 80’s; then resorts to military force over bogus CW allegations: 1st in 2003 and now in Syria.”

The U.S. launched cruise missiles at the Shayrat airfield from which President Donald Trump claimed a chemical weapons attack had been launched. 

The airstrike is the first direct U.S. assault on the government of Bashar al-Assad in six years of civil war.

On Tuesday, a suspected chemical attack was carried out in the northern Syrian province of Idlib which left at least 80 people killed and hundreds injured.

Russia said on Wednesday that the chemical attack was caused when rebel chemical munitions workshops were hit by a Syrian airstrike.

“As the only recent victim of mass use of chemical weapons (by Saddam in the 80’s), Iran condemns use of all WMD by anyone against anyone,” Zarif said in another Twitter message.

NA/PA