The UN Security Council has failed to adopt Russia's draft resolution condemning the recent joint airstrikes by the US, Britain and France on Syria, which came following an alleged chemical weapons attack on the Syrian town of Douma.

France asks "Russia to call on Damascus to enter a negotiated solution", Delattre said. This draft received four votes against with the same permanent members against it.

The showdown between the United States and Russian Federation at the United Nations came as the threat of Western military action in Syria loomed large.

At another hearing, General Mark Milley, the US Army's chief of staff, agreed with Mr Trump that Assad should pay a big price.

The Security Council will not be voting on the American resolution Monday.

Addressing told the council, Haley said the United States was confident that the military strikes had crippled Syria's chemical weapons program.

Russian ambassador Vasily Nebenzia accused the USA of attempting to mislead the worldwide community and said it is "taking one more step toward confrontation".

There was such a body, called the Joint Investigative Mechanism, or JIM, that reported last fall that Syrian strongman Bashar al-Assad's forces were responsible for a sarin gas attack in April 2017 that killed approximately 100 civilians and led to US airstrikes on a Syrian military base.

Moving to return to diplomacy, France said it was working with the United States and Britain on a draft resolution that would address chemical weapons use, the humanitarian crisis and the future of the peace process in Syria.

Diplomats said they did not expect either of those to be adopted.

UN Security Council was temporarily suspended for consultations on the document to deploy OPCW mission to Syria's Douma.

Moscow and Washington have so far vetoed each other's motions to set up an global investigation into chemical weapons use.

The U.N. body was briefed by the Deputy to the High Representative for Disarmament Affairs Thomas Markram and the Special Envoy of the Secretary-General for Syria Staffan de Mistura ahead of the open hearing. While many attacks have been attributed to the Syrian government, the Islamic State and other regional forces have also used chemical weapons.

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"Good souls will not be humiliated", Syria's presidential office tweeted, as translated by the AP. Trump said Thursday on Twitter.

Trump had already cut the visit short twice - from five days, to three - and, finally, to none.

"The United States is not asking to choose the investigators, and neither should Russian Federation".

But until then Trump will remain in Washington - as will Pentagon chief Jim Mattis, who also has postponed planned weekend travel - as several gathering storms converge on the White House.

Trump warned Russian Federation on Wednesday of imminent military action in Syria over a suspected deadly poison gas attack, declaring that missiles "will be coming" and lambasting Moscow for standing by Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

A United Nations chemical weapons expert, wearing a gas mask, holds a plastic bag containing samples from one of the sites of an alleged chemical weapons attack in the Ain Tarma neighbourhood of Damascus August 29, 2013.

It was not immediately clear whether that decision would be delayed by news that a chemical weapons watchdog will be allowed access to Douma, the site of the attack, where at least 40 people were killed.

But that is just one crisis now on the president's Resolute Desk.

Aaron Stein, a senior resident fellow at the Atlantic Council's Rafik Hariri center for the Middle East, told The National that "it appears, based on the latest reporting and leaks, that it will be a limited strike aimed at sending a message about chemical weapons use".

His anger had not abated by early Tuesday.

The raid once again prompted Trump to muse about firing special counsel Robert Mueller, who is investigating Russia's efforts to swing the 2016 election in Trump's favor.

That prompted Democratic members of Congress to push for Mueller to be protected.

"Russia's obstructionism will not continue to hold us hostage when we are confronted with an attack like this one".