Diplomats from 29 countries including US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson met in Paris on Tuesday (January 23rd) to push for sanctions and criminal charges against the perpetrators of chemical attacks in Syria, AFP reported.
Tillerson and his French counterpart Jean-Yves Le Drian will also co-host a meeting of ministers ahead of a new round of peace talks in Vienna later this week and again in Sochi in Russia the week after.
The chemical weapons meeting comes after allegations Monday of a fresh chemical attack by the Syrian regime on Douma in the opposition-held region of Eastern Ghouta.
The regime has been repeatedly accused of using chemical weapons, with the UN among those blaming it for an April 2017 sarin gas attack on the opposition-held village of Khan Sheikhun which left scores dead.
There have been at least 130 separate chemical weapons attacks in Syria since 2012, according to French estimates, with the "Islamic State of Iraq and Syria" (ISIS) group also accused of using mustard gas in Syria and Iraq.
