TEHRAN – Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said on Saturday that the U.S. airstrike against Syria runs contrary to international law and is a “dangerous precedent”.

“The terrorists will continue taking catastrophic actions if they feel that the U.S. embarks on action because of one accusation,” he said during a meeting with Hungarian Deputy Prime Minister Zsolt Semjen in Tehran.

Describing the U.S. action in launching airstrikes against Syria on Friday as a “mistake”, Zarif also said the chemical attack in the northern Syrian province of Idlib on Tuesday was “painful”.

“Syria was previously disarmed by the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, but the terrorist were not. The Syrians had never had sarin gas, but the terrorists had,” the foreign minister explained.

Zarif added that the Syrian government did not need to use chemical weapons.

The suspected chemical attack in Idlib 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.

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

NA/PA