While reiterating their strong condemnation of the deadly chemical attack Syria, European Union leaders cautiously endorsed US President Donald Trump’s missile strikes on Syrian government forces.

EU foreign affairs chief said: ‘’The US has informed the European Union that, based on their assessment that the Syrian regime has used chemical weapons, they launched a strike on Shayrat Airfield in Syria with the understandable intention to prevent and deter the spread and use of deadly chemical weapons.’’

She added: ‘’The US also informed us that these strikes are limited and focused on preventing and deterring further use of chemical weapons atrocities. ‘ She said the EU ‘’firmly believes that there can be no military solution to the conflict and is committed to the unity, sovereignty, territorial integrity and independence of the Syrian State.’’

‘’Only a credible political solution, as defined in UNSCR 2254 and the 2012 Geneva Communiqué will ensure peace and stability in Syria and enable a decisive defeat of Da'esh and other UN-designated terrorist groups in Syria.’’ ‘’The EU reiterates its support to the UN-mediated intra-Syrian talks in Geneva to reach a political solution to the Syrian conflict.’’

EU Council President Donald Tusk said the US strikes ''showed the resolve that was needed against barbaric chemical attacks.'' ''The EU will work with the US to end brutality in Syria,'' he said.

European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker said he understood efforts to deter more chemical attacks.“The US has informed the EU that these strikes were limited and seek to deter further chemical weapons atrocities,” he said in a statement. “The repeated use of such weapons must be answered.”

He stressed that There is a clear distinction between air strikes on military targets and the use of chemical weapons against civilians. ‘’Efforts to stem the spiral of violence in Syria and work towards a lasting peace should be redoubled. Only a political transition can lead to such an outcome,’’ Juncker added.

Earlier this week, during an EU-UN conference in Brussels on ‘’Supporting the future of Syria and the region’’, several EU leaders, including British Foreign Minister Boris Johnsoin, renewed a call for Syrian President Assad to leave office after the chemical attack.

“I simply don’t see how Bashar al-Assad can remain in charge after what he has already done. Of the 400,000 people who are estimated to have been killed in Syria, he is responsible for the vast majority of the butcher’s bill,” Johnson said. “You have to go a long way back in history to find a tyrant who has stayed in office in such circumstances.”

The conflict in Syria is now in its sixth year and has created the worlds’s worst humanitarian crisis since WWII. Two millions of people are in need of emergency assistance, water and shelter.