Iraq News

West vows Syria regime will pay for sarin attack on Khan Sheikhun

A year after the opposition-held Syrian town of Khan Sheikhun was attacked with sarin, the US and its European allies vowed that president Bashar al-Assad will be held to account, AFP reported Wednesday (April 4th).

In a joint statement, the foreign ministers of Britain, France, Germany and the US also sternly criticized Russia for failing to strip its ally of his deadly chemical arsenal.

"Today marks one year since the heinous attack... where Assad's forces unleashed sarin nerve gas with tragic consequences for hundreds of men, women and children," they said.

"We condemn the use of chemical weapons by anyone, anywhere," said foreign ministers Boris Johnson, Jean-Yves Le Drian and Heiko Maas and US Acting Secretary of State John Sullivan.

"We are committed to ensuring that all those responsible are held to account. We will not rest in our efforts to seek justice for the victims of these abhorrent attacks in Syria."

"In 2013, Russia promised to ensure Syria would abandon all of its chemical weapons," the ministers said.

"Since then, international investigators mandated by the UN Security Council have found the Assad regime responsible for using poison gas in four separate attacks," they said.

"Instead of fulfilling its promise, Russia reacted by using its Security Council veto to shut down the investigation," they added.

"Each time a chemical weapon is used, it undermines the global consensus against their employment," they warned.

"Any such use is a clear violation of the Chemical Weapons Convention and gravely undermines the rules-based international order."

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