After an even bigger chemical attack in August 2013, which killed several hundred people, he warned then-President Barack Obama against retaliating against Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.
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After Assad again used chemical weapons on his own people earlier this month, Trump ordered an airstrike on a Syrian airbase to send Assad a message that the us will no longer tolerate his human rights violations.
Last Friday, there was another attack.
The Post, citing a defense official, also said the regime used the chemical weapons out of frustration after failing to make meaningful advances on the ground despite support from Russia, Iran and Hezbollah. “To allow the Syrians to use chemical weapons, without doing something in return, is not possible-politically speaking”. There also is evidence that the Islamic State group and other insurgents have acquired chemical weapons. The Trump administration claimed that it struck Shayrat Air Base, from which it said the attack on April 4 had been launched.
In a 2013 agreement brokered by Russian Federation and the United States, Syria agreed to destroy its chemical weapons.
According to the United Nations, 11 million Syrians are missing or dead from the six year civil war. The fighting has killed an estimated 400,000 people and displaced half of Syria’s population.
North Korea’s deputy United Nations ambassador Kim In Ryong has accused the United States of creating “a unsafe situation in which a thermonuclear war may break out at any moment”.
Smith thought it unlikely that extremists had stockpiled large quantities of chemical weapons.
ISIS doesn’t have the capacity to manufacture the more lethal nerve agents like sarin, Kimball said, but it could attack and seize whatever Syrian authorities refused to turn over.
It is unknown what future consequences will result from Trump’s action’s in Syria, but hopefully he will be more diligent by conferencing with Congress and other world leaders prior to taking military action.
“There have been many reports of Islamic State and al-Qaeda chemical capability – either from seizure from government stores or supplied by/through Turkey”, University of Pittsburgh Professor of International Relations Michael Brenner said on Wednesday.
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Tory MP David Rutley said he asked the Russian ambassador to ensure his government found a new home for Assad outside of Syria to enable the political process to move forward. At least 70 people died in the attack, but responsibility is still unclear.
