With airstrikes on Syria targeting chemical weapons facilities declared a success by Theresa May, Donald Trump and Emmanuel Macron, many will be wondering what happens next.
Mrs May has not ruled out fresh action if Bashar Assad’s regime continues to attack its own people while the US has warned it is “locked and loaded” for fresh strikes if necessary.
The PM has insisted the decision to deploy British cruise missiles in response to the chemical attack in Douma was “both right and legal”.
But the strikes have been met with a mixed reaction. Some have condemned her for not consulting Parliament before authorising the operation, while others supported the Prime Minister’s actions.
So what do experts think?
Inaction following the “appalling” use of chemical weapons by the Assad regime would have made the West look weak, says Lord Dannatt, who was Chief of the General Staff from 2006 to 2009.
Writing in the Mail on Sunday, the retired Army officer said it was “wholly right” that Syria was subject to sanctions from the UK, US and France.
Lord Dannatt said the next step is for Britain to play its part in getting all parties to meet “around the conference table” in Geneva, and put a stop to the Syrian civil war.
Lord West, who was First Sea Lord and Chief of the Naval Staff from 2002 to 2006, agreed, saying Bashar Assad would be “stupid” to consider deploying chemical weapons again.
He said some form of military action “had to be taken” over the situation in Syria and while Saturday’s attack was a “pinprick”, the next one could be a “great big hammer”.
He added that he believes Russia will not fire missiles and Vladimir Putin would be happy to “allow this to fade away”.
But Mark Almond, director of the Crisis Research Institute in Oxford, questioned whether the “pinpoint precision” of the airstrikes may have made the situation worse.
Writing in the Sunday Telegraph, he said while the “immediate risk of a wider war” had been avoided for now, sources of potential conflict are still very much active on the ground in Syria.
“Bad relations could easily encourage a reckless Russian freebooter, prompted and paid by Iran, to try his luck getting revenge on the pockets of US and British forces operating in eastern Syria,” he wrote.
And Michael Clarke, a British academic who specialises in defence studies, warned that British involvement in the strikes could lead to imminent cyber attacks from Russia.
Speaking to the Sunday Mirror, he said: “I suspect Russia will choose not to respond in military terms. But cyber warfare is highly likely.