TEHRAN - General Hossein Dehqan and Sergei Shoigu, the Iranian and Russian defense ministers, held a phone conversation on Tuesday to discuss the U.S. air strike against Syria.

Dehqan said the U.S. attack was “against the international law” and described it as a “clear aggression against an independent country”.

He added that the U.S. action was in line with strengthening the terrorists.

“New rulers of the U.S. showed that they are not honest and despite all claims in their electoral campaign, they do not fight the terrorists and instead take step in line with strengthening terrorists and their supporters and bombard the Syrian people and armed forces instead of the terrorists,” the Iranian defense chief stated.

Dehqan said that the U.S. will pay a cost if it repeats such moves.

He added the “resistance front” will go ahead with its “anti-terrorism actions with firm determination”. 

For his part, Shoigu said that Russia is determined to fight the terrorists and their supporters by using its military and political power.

A suspected chemical attack in the northern Syrian province of Idlib on April 4 left at least 80 people killed and hundreds injured.

On April 7, the U.S. launched cruise missiles at the Shayrat airfield from which President Donald Trump claimed a chemical weapons attack had been launched.

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

NA/PA