US President Donald Trump and his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan agreed in a telephone conversation on Monday that Bashar Assad must bear responsibility for the chemical attack in Idlib province, the White House said in a statement.
The two leaders also agreed on the need to take over the head of the regime, Bashar al-Assad, according to a statement issued by the Information Office of the Presidency of the Republic of Turkey.
The two leaders discussed the chemical attack carried out by regime forces on the town of Khan Sheikhoun in rural Idlib on April 4.
President Trump will avoid drawing any “red lines” because doing so could take away the strategic advantage that comes with keeping U.S. plans a secret, White House press secretary Sean Spicer said Monday.
“Drawing red lines hasn’t really worked in the past,” Spicer told reporters at the White House, referring to President Barack Obama’s highly criticized decision to draw a “red line” for Syria, from which he later retreated.
“I don’t think that you’re going to see the President drawing red lines in the sand, but I think that the action that he took in Syria shows that, when appropriate, this President will take decisive action,” Spicer added. (Source: Syrian Coalition’s Media Department + Agencies)