World, Middle East

UK, US, France leaders urge response to Syria attack

May, Trump, Macron agree global community needs to respond 'to uphold worldwide prohibition on use of chemical weapons'

10.04.2018 - Update : 11.04.2018
UK, US, France leaders urge response to Syria attack

London, City of

By Ahmet Gurhan Kartal

LONDON 

The leaders of the U.K., the U.S. and France have agreed that the international community needs “to respond to uphold the worldwide prohibition on the use of chemical weapons”, the British government said in a statement Tuesday.

The agreement came during separate talks over the phone between Prime Minister Theresa May and the U.S. President Donald Trump, and French President Emmanuel Macron.

The leaders “agreed that reports of a chemical weapons attack in Syria were utterly reprehensible and if confirmed, represented further evidence of the Assad regime’s appalling cruelty against its own people and total disregard for its legal obligations not to use these weapons,” the statement said.

“They [May, Trump and Macron] agreed that the international community needed to respond to uphold the worldwide prohibition on the use of chemical weapons,” it said.

The statement added the leaders also “agreed they would continue working closely together and with international partners to ensure that those responsible were held to account.”

Assad regime forces struck targets in the Damascus suburb’s Douma district on Saturday midnight allegedly using a poisonous gas, which left at least 78 civilians dead, according to the White Helmets.

On Feb. 24, the UN Security Council unanimously adopted Resolution 2401 which called for a month-long cease-fire in Syria, especially in Eastern Ghouta to allow the delivery of humanitarian aid.

Despite the resolution, the regime and its allies early this month launched a major ground offensive backed by Russian air power aimed at capturing opposition-held parts of Eastern Ghouta.

Home to some 400,000 people, the suburb has remained the target of a crippling regime siege for the last five years.

Earlier this month, a UN commission of inquiry released a report accusing the regime of committing war crimes in Eastern Ghouta, including the use of chemical weapons against civilians.

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