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Eye on the Arctic brings you stories and newsmakers from across the North

The Canadian province of Ontario may be a southern province, but this week it pledged $96,844 towards the Inuit Art Foundation's update to the Igloo Tag Trademark.

The money was part of a series of funding announcements made on Thursday by David Zimmer, Ontario's Minister of Indigenous Relations and Reconciliation.

“These grants are part of Ontario’s commitment to work closely with Indigenous partners so they can fully develop the talent and economic opportunities in their communities," Zimmer said in a news release. "From supporting education and employment opportunities for single mothers to protecting Inuit art and culture and beyond these are important steps in Ontario’s journey of reconciliation.”

Although, none of Canada's traditional Inuit territory is found in Ontario,  many of the country's most important Inuit art galleries and organizations are located in the province.

Feature Interview The Inuit Art Foundation’s Alysa Procida tells Eye on the Arctic why the igloo tag still matters and its role in the modern day art market:

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Art trademark gets a rethink

A carving by the late Mathewsie Tunnillie (1984-2009) with its igloo tag listing the artist's name, community and description of the work. (Eilís Quinn/Eye on the Arctic)

The igloo tag was created in 1958.

It was developed by the government of Canada after counterfeit, mass-market works began hitting the market to take advantage of Inuit art’s popularity in the South.

The goal was to create a trademark that would protect both Inuit artists and buyers from fake works and ensure the robustness of the Inuit art economy.

Each tag includes an igloo trademark, along with things like the artist’s name and home community, allowing the work’s provenance to be easily authenticated.

The Canadian government handed over control of the tag to the Inuit Art Foundation, which promotes Inuit artists and publishes the magazine Inuit Art Quarterly, in 2017.

The updated igloo tag trademark that will be issued by the Inuit Art Foundation. (Inuit Art Foundation)

Role in modern-day art market

Alysa Procida, executive director of the Inuit Art Foundation , said the grant will help the organization make the trademark more relevant to the modern-day art market.

"That includes everything from updating the actual trademark itself, which now says "Inuit art," rather than a more outdated terminology, to conducting consultations with artists who have never really been asked before what else they would like the trademark to do or how else it might be used," Procida said in a phone interview from Toronto.

Possibilities include expanding the types of art it could be applied to, licensing, and making the trademark available to Inuit artists no matter which region of Canada they belong to or work in. (Currently, Inuit artists in Nunatsiavut, the Inuit self-governing region of Newfoundland and Labrador in Atlantic Canada, and Inuit artists in southern Canada, do not have access to the tag.)

Economic heft

A study released in 2017 found that Inuit art contributed $87.2 million to Canada’s GDP and that the igloo tag trademark contributed $3.5 million annually to the Inuit arts economy.

It also found that the presence of the igloo tag increased the perceived value of a particular work by approximately $117 CDN.

Video Section

To view Eye on the Arctic’s in-studio interviews with Inuit artists from across Canada, visit our special video section:

The art and artists of Canada’s Arctic

Artist Jolly Atagooyuk working in studio in Pangnirtung, a community in Canada’s eastern Arctic territor...

New research suggests that people who are obese or severely obese may be fit and, if they are, they have the same or possibly better health benefits from their fitness than do other people. Many studies link obesity with diabetes, heart disease, stroke, cancer and other health problems.

But the recent study from York University suggests that people who are obese or very obese get the same or better reduction in health risk by doing as little as 150 minutes per week of an activity like walking.

You cannot judge a person’s fitness by what they look like, says study co-author. (CBC)

‘High fitness was very protective’

Of the general population, 80 per cent are fit. In this study, 41per cent of the mildly obese subjects were found to be fit and among the severely obese, 11 per cent were.

“When we’re talking about severe obesity, certainly…being in that high fitness group was very protective,” says Prof. Jennifer Kuk, a co-author of the study. “In fact, there was no difference in the risk of high blood pressure or high glucose or high lipids between the groups even though there is about a 120 or 100-pound (54 or 45-kg) difference between the…groups.”

Prof. Jennifer Kuk says people who are obese get the same or better health benefits from good fitness. (York University)

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This result was based on data gathered from 853 Canadians of all ages, sizes and ethnic origins attending weight management clinics in the province of Ontario.

‘Take the focus off body weight’

“The most important message is that you really can’t judge people based on what they look like and know what their health level is,” says Kuk. “If you are struggling with obesity or if you’re not struggling with obesity, it’s really important for you to exercise regardless of whether or not the scale goes down.

“I think that we need to take that focus off your body weight and realize there is a lot more to health than just the scale.”

About 150 minutes of moderate activity are enough to confer health benefits no matter what a person weighs, according to the study.

‘Fitness more challenging the higher the BMI’

Canadian obesity expert Dr. Arya Sharma posted a blog drawing attention to this study. He wrote that we already know that “it is quite possible to mitigate the metabolic risks commonly associated with excess body fat by improving cardiorespiratory fitness. Now, a study….shows this relationship also holds for people with quite severe obesity.”

However he goes on to say that “it is also apparent based on the rather low number of ‘fit’ individuals in the severe obesity category (only about 1 in 10), that maintaining a high level of fitness proves to be more challenging the higher the BMI (body mass index).”

Studies of this kind are important as obesity is increasing in Canada. Now, one in four adults and one in 10 children have clinical obesity. That equals about six million people.

The federal government has found no “conclusive” evidence Canadian-made armoured vehicles were used to commit human-rights violations in Saudi Arabia’s restive Eastern Province last summer, Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland told a parliamentary committee Thursday.

That was the result of a “full and thorough” investigation by Global Affairs officials after videos and photos surfaced last July of Saudi special police and security forces using Canadian-made armoured vehicles in a crackdown against Shia Muslim minority militants in the town of Awamiyah, Freeland said.

“That was the independent, objective opinion of our public service and the advice given to me as minister,” Freeland told MPs on the Commons foreign affairs committee.

Ottawa scrambles to investigate reported use of Canadian arms in Saudi crackdown

Canadian armour on display as Saudi troops celebrate victory in Shia town

A still image taken from a video posted on Twitter appears to show a Terradyne Gurkha APC on the streets of Awamiyah in the Eastern Province of Saudi Arabia. (Anthony Fenton/Twitter)

This experience did, however, cause her to pause and led her to re-examine Canada’s export permit system, Freeland said.

“Canada is not alone in the world in taking stock of how we allow and monitor the export of arms, and of the considerations that go into those decisions,” Freeland said. “I have spoken with my counterparts in Germany, Sweden and The Netherlands, for example, whose countries have all recently—in one way or another—questioned how arms are exported.”

To toughen Canada’s arms exports laws, Freeland said the Liberals plan to introduce a new clause in Bill C-47, a proposed legislation which would amend the Export and Import Permits Act to allow Canada to accede to the Arms Trade Treaty (ATT).

Government presents legislation to join Arms Trade Treaty

The Liberal government supports the inclusion of a “substantial risk” clause in the law, which would require the Global Affairs officials who issue export permits for military equipment to ensure that there was no substantial risk such equipment could be used to commit human rights violations, she said.

“Such a clause would mean that our government, and indeed future governments, would not allow the export of a controlled good if there were a substantial risk that it could be used to commit human rights violations,” Freeland said.

But there is one caveat, she said.

“As a matter of broad principle, Canada will honour, to the greatest extent possible, pre-existing contracts,” Freeland said.

Freeland said Canada's word as a “trusted partner” in international negotiations has to be protected.

A Canadian LAV (light armoured vehicle) arrives to escort a convoy at a forward operating base near Panjwaii, Afghanistan at sunrise on Nov.26, 2006. (Bill Graveland/THE CANADIAN PRESS)

This would mean that the $15-billion deal brokered by Ottawa to sell advanced Light Armoured Vehicles (LAV 6.0) to Saudi Arabia would still go ahead.

That’s a very troubling development, said Cesar Jaramillo, executive director of Project Ploughshares, a disarmament group.

“The main reason why it’s troubling has to do with the very standard that the government is using,” Jaramillo said in a phone interview from Waterloo, Ontario.

“They keep referring – and this is a recurring problem – to evidence,” Jaramillo said. “But this emphasis on the word evidence is misleading because from an arms-control perspective internationally the gold standard, the recognized threshold that should guide decisions is not evidence but reasonable risk.”

(click to listen to the full interview with Cesar Jaramillo)

Eye on the Arctic brings you stories and newsmakers from across the North.

Weak national leadership in the North American Arctic is hindering northern development compared to the thriving polar regions of Russia and the Nordics, says a Canadian think tank in a new report.

"Canada has a romantic, folkloric ideal of the Arctic which is not in close accord with reality," John Higginbotham, a senior fellow at the Centre for International Governance Innovation (CIGI), told Eye on the Arctic in a telephone conversation this week.

"We're attached to a vision of polar bears and Inuit in kayaks. But what is lacking in this country is a broad understanding of how challenging the environment is going to be because of climate change."

Feature Interview

Listen here for more from Eye on the Arctic‘s conversation with John Higginbotham from the Centre for International Governance Innovation:

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Other countries, both Arctic and non-Arctic, are increasing investment and interest in the North while Canada, and other areas of the North American Arctic like Alaska and Greenland continue to fall behind, said Higginbotham, co-author of the report The North American Arctic: Energizing Regional Collaboration and Governance, along with Jennifer Spence.

"Russia is decades ahead of Canada when it comes to oil and gas development and the development of the Northern Sea Route," he said.  "The Nordics have found a good balance between environmental responsibility and economic development.   Canada is paying, frankly more attention to governance and identity issues than to the fundamental development of economic infrastructure on which any long term solution to the social and economic problems of the Canadian Arctic (will be made)."

Climate's creeping impact

Cars on the Inuvik-Tuktoyaktuk Highway in Arctic Canada on November 15, 2017. A new report argues more infrastructure projects like this are needed in the North. (Melinda Trochu/AFP/Getty Images)

Russia has made significant investments in Arctic oil and gas exploration, including the Yamal LNG plant, located on the Yamal Peninsula in Russia's Far North.  It's also invested heavily in the Northern Sea Route, a waterway bridging Asia and Europe that passes through the country's Arctic.

Norway has also invested heavily in offshore Arctic drilling.

Major commercial shipping powers like China also continue to develop significant icebreaker capacity and signal increasing interest in the North as climate change makes the region more accessible.

"These are dynamic factors that contain both challenges and opportunities for Canada, but we aren't having a discussion about how to respond to any of these outside forces or how to make our own Arctic a better place," Higginbotham said.

"Roads, energy projects, deep waters ports require long-term political and economic commitment and though the Canadian government has made reconciliation with Indigenous Peoples a priority, there's been little talk about concrete measures that could lead to sustainable economic reconciliation."

East-West cooperation

A 2012 community meeting in Deline in Canada's Northwest Territories. Are better links with other northern regions the key to success for communities like this one? (Eilís Quinn/Eye on the Arctic)

With only three federal Members of Parliament in Canada's Arctic territories compared to the hundreds of federal, provincial and municipal representatives in the South, Higginbotham says creating stronger  ties between Arctic regions and sub-national governments would be a first step to strengthening northern voices on the national stage.

"East - West cooperation could go a long way to helping, instead of the North-South relations where peo...

Your hosts, Lynn, Marie-Claude, Levon, Marc   **. (video of show at bottom)

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Myanmar’s brutal campaign against Rohingya’s refugees is one example of how violence escalates when no one speaks out against it, says Human Rights Watch. Photo credit Manish Swarup/AP Photo.

Human Rights Watch has issued their annual report. It looks at the human and civil rights situation in some 90 countries.

This year the report notes the rise of authoritarian and populist regimes in Europe, and a divisive, and anti-immigrant stance in the U.S.

The report expresses hope however. The title of the report is "Fighting for Rights Succeeds".

Lynn spoke with Emma Daly, communications director at Human Rights Watch.

photo montage of missing and murdered indigenous women and girls. Photo CBC

Canada's national inquiry into missing and murdered indigenous women and girls continues its travels across the country, followed by controversy.  There have been many calls from Indigenous groups for the head commissioner, Marion Buller to step down.

This has been due to a variety of issues including a very slow start to the $54 million inquiry, mishandling and missteps involving grieving family giving testimony, lack of funds for those wishing to travel to testify, and not least of all an abnormally high turnover of top staff.

The recent leaving of the second executive director after only four months has further highlighted apparent problems behind the scenes.

Marc spoke with Lori Campbell, about her thoughts. She is the director of Indigenous Initiatives at St. Paul's University College, affiliated with the University of Waterloo, Ontario.

Minister of International Trade Francois-Philippe Champagne speaks to the media on the first day of the Liberal government’s cabinet retreat in London, Ontario on Thursday, January 11, 2018. The Liberal government is planning to make good on a campaign promise to create an ombudsman with teeth to oversee the conduct of Canadian companies operating abroad.Photo Credit: PC / Geoff Robins

The federal government is trying to do something about a long time international complaint against Canada. The government is creating an independent watchdog to investigate the conduct of Canadian companies operating abroad.

Some Canadian companies, notably mining companies and affiliates operating in developing countries have often raised concerns especially concerning human rights abuses.

The government has now created the post of ombudsman to investigate complaints. Levon spoke to Karyn Keenan, director of the NGO "Above Ground"

Images of the week

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"Down Inside": A career in Canada’s federal prisons

Suicides, violent beatings, horrific murders,  guards who cared, guards who didn’t, bureaucratic indifference, political meddling, Robert Clark saw all of that and much more.

Robet Clarks intimate look at his long career in the Correctional Service Canada, working with some of the country’s most horrific and violent criminals, and in a sometimes contradictory system. © Goose Lane Editions

Now retired, Robert Clark's new book "Down Inside" ( Goose Lane Editions),  reveals a lifetime of experience as a member of the Correctional Service Canada, working in very very difficult environments in a variety of Canada's toughest penal institutions,

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Now author, former CSC employee Robert Clark from student volunteer to deputy warden, 30 years working in Canada’s toughest prisons. © CBC

“Down Inside”- not in the office, but inside the prison itself, in the ranges, the yard, the workshops, gym, and so on.

Robert Clark in his career has seen everything that can and did go on in what is to most of us, a mysterious, potentially frightening, unknown world of federal prisons and penitentiaries.

He spent 30 years inside Canada’s toughest federal prison system rising from a volunteer university student, to parole officer, to deputy warden

The Kingston Penitentiary, opened in 1835 and closed in 2013. It housed many of Canada’s worst criminals, and it’s where Rob Clark spent some of his career © iStock via CBC

Along the way he saw how things didn’t work in the federal prison system and were harmful, such as extended solitary confinement, (just now being modified). how the wrong move or word could turn a peaceful situation into something explosive, and how showing a minimum of respect towards the prisoners could turn an potential explosive situation into calm.

Cellblock or *range* in Kingston Pen (now decommissioned) This Victorian era institution was one of the toughest prisons in Canada, and where Robert Clark spent some of his career. © Boardhead-wiki commons

He also tells of how the stressful environment took a toll on the guards personal lives, including his own.

He also points out that the idea of punishing inmates as in the “tough on crime” attitude really only makes a bad situation worse.

From quelling riots, to taking prisoners on sight seeing trips in the city.

it’s a fascinating look into this world and suggests along the way how those in decision-making positions could make changes to improve the prison system so that both prisoners and society benefit.

The United Nations and humanitarian agencies working in war-torn Yemen are sounding the alarm over the continuing blockade of much of the country's air, sea and land entry points by the Western-supported coalition of Gulf states, calling on them to allow lifesaving humanitarian supplies to pass to alleviate “the worst humanitarian crisis in the world.”

“While the Saudi-led military coalition has partially lifted the recent blockade of Yemen, closure of much of the country's air, sea and land ports is making an already catastrophic situation far worse,” said a joint statement issued by World Food Programme (WFP) Executive Director David Beasley, UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) Executive Director Anthony Lake, and World Health Organization (WHO) Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.

“The space and access we need to deliver humanitarian assistance is being choked off, threatening the lives of millions of vulnerable children and families,” the statement added.

The United Nations relief wing added its voice on Friday, warning of famine-like conditions unfolding in Yemen, as a blockade on aid and other essential goods by a Saudi-led coalition fighting Houthi rebels entered its 12th day.

Over a dozen humanitarian agencies operating in Yemen said Thursday they were “outraged” by the continued blockade by the Saudi-led coalition of humanitarian and commercial supplies desperately needed for the survival of the Yemeni population.

“Ongoing obstruction by the Saudi-led coalition to the delivery of critical supplies is a measure which may amount to collective punishment of millions of Yemeni people,” said a statement signed by sixteen humanitarian agencies.

Children rest on a bed at their family hut at a poor neighbourhood on the outskirts of the Red Sea port city of Hodeida, Yemen November 12, 2017. © ABDULJABBAR ZEYAD

More than 20 million people, including over 11 million children in Yemen, are in need of urgent humanitarian assistance, at least 14.8 million are without basic healthcare and an outbreak of cholera has resulted in more than 900,000 suspected cases, according to the UN agencies working there.

“Some 17 million people do not know where their next meal is coming from and 7 million are totally dependent on food assistance,” the statement by UN agencies said. “Severe acute malnutrition is threatening the lives of almost 400,000 children. As supplies run low, food prices rise dramatically, putting thousands more at risk.”

Since 2015, Yemen has been in a conflict between forces loyal to President Abdrabbuh Mansour Hadi supported by Saudi Arabia and most Western governments and those allied to the Houthi rebel movement, supported by Iran.

The Houthis control much of the country, including the capital Sana’a and the biggest port terminal in Hodeida. The Saudi-led coalition has accused the Houthis of smuggling weapons through Yemen’s sea, air and land entry ports and has imposed a blockade on the ports controlled by the rebels.

Yemen imports nearly 80 per cent of its food, said Kevin Dunbar, director of global programs at CARE Canada.

“Now that food aid hasn’t been able to come through these major ports, which have been blocked by the Saudis and people depend on that regular supply,” Dunbar told Radio Canada International. “So there is not enough food, fuel is not coming through as well so major cities and people are not able to use that fuel to pump clean water, and also medical supplies are running out.”

(click to listen to the full interview with Kevin Dunbar)

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Cars crowd at a gas station amid fuel supply shortage in Sanaa, Yemen November 10, 2017. © Mohamed Al-Sayaghi

As Saudi forces celebrate their victory over armed militants in the Shia-populated city of Awamiyah, human rights groups, opposition politicians and government officials in Ottawa are trying to find out whether the Canadian-made armoured vehicles deployed by the Saudis were used to commit human rights abuses and what that would mean for Canada's lucrative defence ties with the ultra-conservative kingdom.

Radio Canada International reported in July that Canadian armoured personnel carriers (APCs) produced by Terradyne Armored Vehicles based in Newmarket, Ontario, were deployed by the Saudi security forces during the fighting in Awamiya in Saudi Arabia's restive Qatif region that has killed at least 20 people and forced the majority of the city's 30,000 residents to flee.

Videos posted on social media show Saudi soldiers celebrating and dancing in Awamiyah's devastated streets that look like scenes from Aleppo or Mosul. The videos also depict several Terradyne Gurkha APCs identified by military experts contacted by RCI.

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Calls to suspend defence exports to Saudi Arabia

The controversy with the use of Canadian Terradyne APCs comes barely a year after the Liberal government approved a $15-billion megadeal to supply Saudi Arabia with advanced Light Armoured Vehicles (LAVs) produced by another Ontario-based manufacturer.

RCI also reported last week about a 9-second video purporting to show LAV 25 vehicles produced by General Dynamics Land Systems in London, Ont. being deployed by Saudi forces. However, RCI has been unable to independently confirm that the video was in fact shot in the vicinity of Awamiyah.

There are no doubts, however, that Terradyne Gurkha APCs were used by Saudi forces in Awamiyah, said Adam Coogle, Middle East researcher with Human Rights Watch.

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The revelation that Canadian weapons may have been used in support of operations that allegedly targeted civilians have prompted the opposition and human rights groups to call on the Liberal government to suspend all weapons transfers to Saudi Arabia.

Canadian officials are working “with a real sense of urgency” to investigate the reports that Canadian-made military vehicles were being used by Saudi security forces in Awamiyah, Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland said Monday.

All throughout the fighting in Awamiyah, video footage posted by Saudi soldiers and Saudi Shia activists shows the Saudi troops using Terradyne APCs.

Coogle, however, said he has not seen any video evidence of Canadian APCs, which can be armed with machine guns mounted on the vehicle's turret, firing their weapons during the fighting.

"It's impossible for us to know for certain how the Canadian vehicles were used, to what extent they were used and whether or not they were used to commit human rights violations," Coogle said. "What we do know, based on photographic evidence and video evidence is that these vehicles were deployed to Awamiyah."

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It is the first time that use of the Canadian weapons has been traced to the Eastern Province, Coogle said.

"It's something that we suspect was going on for a while but now we know for sure," Coogle said.

'Excessive force'

Given that the Saudi forces had encountered fierce armed resistance, the use of armoured personnel carriers to protect their troops was probably appropriate, Coogle said.

"At the same time we also heard many-many accounts from individuals and residents of Awamiyah who claim that they believe that Saudi security forces used excessive force and ...

South Sudanese refugees in northern parts of the country are in desperate need of humanitarian assistance before the rainy season sets in, making it even harder to reach the already isolated areas, says a Canadian photographer who just returned from Unity State near the border with Sudan.

Speaking to Radio Canada International from capital Juba, Renaud Philippe said nothing in his career of covering strife and humanitarian disasters compares to the desperate situation he witnessed in South Sudan.

(click to listen to the interview with Renaud Philippe)

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The Quebec City native is in South Sudan on an assignment for the Humanitarian Coalition, an umbrella group of seven Canadian aid groups: Canadian Lutheran World Relief, CARE Canada, Islamic Relief Canada, Oxfam Canada, Oxfam-Québec, Plan Canada and Save the Children Canada.

A boy eats out of a ladle at his home in Ngop in South Sudan’s Unity State on March 10, 2017. © ALBERT GONZALEZ FARRAN

A deadly combination of civil war and a devastated subsistence economy already under stress from climate change have left more than 100,000 people facing starvation in parts of South Sudan, according to three UN agencies and their partner NGOs.

The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and the World Food Programme (WFP) warned earlier this year that an additional one million people are classified as being on the brink of famine, with that number expected to rise to 5.5 million by mid-summer if nothing is done to resolve the food crisis.

The escalating conflict in South Sudan had driven more than one million children out of the country, according to the latest statistics released by the United Nations.

“The horrifying fact that nearly one in five children in South Sudan has been forced to flee their home illustrates how devastating this conflict has been for the country’s most vulnerable,” said Leila Pakkala, the Regional Director for Eastern and Southern Africa of the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF), in a press release issued jointly with the UN refugee agency.

“Add this to the more than one million children who are also displaced within South Sudan, and the future of a generation is truly on the brink,” she warned.

Aid groups have slammed a ’man-made’ famine caused by ongoing fighting in South Sudan where civil war has forced people to flee, disrupted agriculture, sent prices soaring, and seen aid agencies blocked from accessing some of the worst-hit areas. © Renaud Philippe

Philippe said he visited a remote area in Unity State where thousands of internally displaced people fleeing the violence have sought refuge on remote islands scattered in huge marshes along the White Nile.

“They found some peace on these islands but the problem is, because it’s hard to access they have no food, no proper healthcare,” Philippe said.

The local communities are trying to help the refugees but their resources are strained to the limit Philippe said.

People subsist on fishing with spears and harvesting water lilies, he said.

“That’s the only thing they can have at this time,” Philippe said.

But the situation will get even more desperate with the approaching rainy season.

“Because of the rainy season no more planes will be able to land in this area, only choppers, which is a lot more expensive than planes,” Philippe said. “So all the international aid provided in this area will be compromised.”

All the NGOs in the area are in a race against the clock to establish their programs and bring in supplies before the rainy season starts, he said.

U.S. cruise missile attacks against Syrian military targets believed to have been behind a deadly chemical weapons attack in northern Syria mark a new and unpredictable phase in the six-year-old war, says a Canadian expert.

The U.S. Navy launched 59 cruise missiles on Thursday in response to the attack in the northern Idlib province that killed at least 80 civilians, including 20 children in what President Donald Trump had called "a disgrace to humanity."

Kyle Matthews, Senior Deputy Director of the Montreal Institute for Genocide and Human Rights Studies at Concordia University and a Fellow at the Canadian Defence and Foreign Affairs Institute, says while the U.S. strike against President Bashar al-Assad's air force degrades its capacity to carry out any other attacks against civilians and using chemical weapons, it also puts the trajectory of the wider conflict onto a path of possible confrontation with Russia.

(click to listen to the full interview with Kyle Matthews)

Listen

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U.S. Navy guided-missile destroyer USS Porter (DDG 78) conducts strike operations while in the Mediterranean Sea which U.S. Defense Department said was a part of cruise missile strike against Syria on April 7, 2017. © Handout . / Reuters

Russia warned on Friday that U.S. cruise missile strikes on a Syrian air base could have "extremely serious" consequences. 

"We strongly condemn the illegitimate actions by the U.S. The consequences of this for regional and international stability could be extremely serious,” Russia's deputy U.N. envoy, Vladimir Safronkov, told a meeting of the U.N. Security Council on Friday.

Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev charged that the U.S. strikes were one step away from clashing with Russia's military.

Russian Deputy Permanent Representative to the United Nations Vladimir Safronkov listens during a meeting of the United Nations Security Council at U.N. headquarters, April 5, 2017 in New York City. © GI/Drew Angerer

"Clearly Syria is strategically very important to Russia and Russia will do whatever it can to defend the Assad regime, because its interests are supported by keeping Assad in power," Matthews said.

Russia has already promised to boost Syria's air defence system and is moving more equipment and a part of its navy closer to Syria, he said. Russian defence officials also announced that Russia is suspending an agreement with the U.S. designed to avoid collisions between their air forces over Syria.

"We don't know where this is going, I hope cool heads will prevail and we can focus on actually trying to stop this conflict," said Matthews.

U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley holds up photos of victims of the Syrian chemical attack during a meeting of the United Nations Security Council at U.N. headquarters, April 5, 2017 in New York City. © GI/Drew Angerer

U.S. ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley said on Friday the Trump administration was ready to take further steps if needed.

"We are prepared to do more, but we hope that will not be necessary," she told the U.N. Security Council. "The United States will not stand by when chemical weapons are used. It is in our vital national security interest to prevent the spread and use of chemical weapons."

However, the confrontation with Russia and the Syrian regime could derail Trump's plans to work with Russian President Vladimir Putin in fighting ISIS. The U.S. is already involved in the conflict in Syria and has a number of special forces soldiers working with Kurdish groups fighting Islamic State militants in the east of the country, trying to retake the terror group's stronghold of Raqqa, Matthews said.