The Syrian Network for Human Rights (SNHR) said that the Assad regime, through its repeated use of chemical weapons of mass destruction, poses a threat to the world and mankind, not only Syrians. It called on the United States to carry out its Red Line threats after the US Secretary of State said that the Assad regime used chemical weapons once again.
In a report issued on Friday, the Network said that the US investigations into the use of chemical weapons in rural Latakia and the announcement of its results are two more decisive steps towards exposing the litany of war crimes, which are still being committed by the Assad regime, and exposing them to all the world’s countries.
The report urged the US Administration to maintain the “Red Line” pledge by targeting all those forces and airbases that continue to use chemical weapons of mass destruction, and to prosecute the leaders who ordered these forces to use chemical weapons.
According to the report, the Assad regime has committed heinous crimes and violations against Syrian civilians for over eight years to date. It has also consistently failed to respond to any of the demands of the International Commission of Inquiry on the Syrian Arab Republic, or to those of the High Commission for Human Rights, or even to Security Council resolutions.
The report documents the record of chemical weapons use in Syria in accordance with the dates of UN Security Council resolutions, which amounted to at least 217 chemical attacks being carried out by the Assad regime since the first documented use of chemical weapons in Syria on December 23, 2012 up to October 2019; the Syrian regime carried out at least 33 attacks prior to UN Security Council Resolution No. 2118, while it carried out 184 attacks following this resolution, 115 of which were after Resolution No. 2209, and 59 attacks after Resolution No. 2235.
The report stressed that the Independent International Commission of Inquiry, the Joint Investigative Mechanism, and international organizations such as Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International have repeatedly proved the Syrian regime’s responsibility for the use of chemical weapons.
The report recommends that the US Administration prosecute officers and political and military leaders responsible for the chemical weapons issue in Syria, stressing that the Syrian Network for Human Rights will provide it, in accordance with the agreement, lists of those involved in the use of chemical weapons.
The report said that the international community should create a humanitarian alliance aimed at protecting Syrian civilians from chemical weapons and barrel bombs similar to the NATO intervention to protect civilians from killings and ethnic cleansing in former Yugoslavia. (Source: Syrian National Coalition’s Media Department)
