WARNINGS

Russia: Syria Strike Would Be ‘Catastrophic’

While oil prices rise on fears of strike.

As reports trickle out of Washington on Tuesday that the U.S. is considering a military strike on Syria, Bashar al-Assad’s main allies, Russia and China, warned that a possible strike would be “catastrophic,” despite allegations of a chemical-weapons attack by Assad’s government. “Attempts to bypass the Security Council, once again to create artificial, groundless excuses for a military intervention in the region, are fraught with new suffering in Syria and catastrophic consequences for other countries in the Middle East,” Russian foreign ministry spokesman Alexander Lukashevich said in a statement. Meanwhile, worldwide oil prices rose rose to a five-month high in early trading Tuesday, and demand for the yen rose as well. Stocks opened low due to “risk-off trading.”