US Secretary of State Michael Pompeo said that the United States shared the conclusions the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) reached in its latest report attributing three instances of chemical weapons use to the Assad regime. He said that the United assesses that the Assad regime retains sufficient chemicals – specifically sarin and chlorine.
In a statement issued on Wednesday to comment on the OPCW report, Pompeo said that the report is “the latest in a large and growing body of evidence that the Assad regime uses chemical weapons attacks in Syria as part of a deliberate campaign of violence against the Syrian people.”
“The United States shares the OPCW’s conclusions and assesses that the Syrian regime retains sufficient chemicals – specifically sarin and chlorine – and expertise from its traditional chemical weapons (CW) program to use sarin, to produce and deploy chlorine munitions, and to develop new CW,” Pompeo added.
Pompeo added: “For more than nine years, the Assad regime has waged a bloody war against the Syrian people. The regime is responsible for innumerable atrocities, some of which rise to the level of war crimes and crimes against humanity.”
OPCW on Wednesday released a report attributing three instances of chemical weapons use to the Assad regime. The OPCW’s Investigation and Identification Team (IIT) concluded there are reasonable grounds to believe that Syrian Arab Air Force dropped aerial bombs containing sarin in the town of Ltamenah in northen rural Hama on 24 and 30 March 2017, and dropped a cylinder containing chlorine on the Ltamenah hospital on 25 March 2017.
The Syrian Opposition Coalition (SOC) called for international action under Chapter VII of the UN Charter and in line with UN Security Council Resolution 2118. (Source: SOC’s Media Department)
