Concerns re-emerge over use of chemical weapons by Syrian regime

The UNSC announces that it will hold a closed-door meeting next week, days after a string of bombings on opposition-held Syrian territory and suspected use of chemical weapons by the Damascus regime.

The chemical attack on April 4, 2017 in the town of Khan Sheikhoun in northern Idlib province was one of the most deadly in Syria’s civil war. It prompted a US missile strike against a Syrian regime air base which Washington said was used to launch the strike.
Reuters

The chemical attack on April 4, 2017 in the town of Khan Sheikhoun in northern Idlib province was one of the most deadly in Syria’s civil war. It prompted a US missile strike against a Syrian regime air base which Washington said was used to launch the strike.

The UN Security Council will hold a closed-door meeting on Monday to discuss the continued violence in Syria and use of deadly chemical weapons. 

A series of bombing raids, suspected to have been conducted by Russia, hit opposition-held areas in Syria, killing and wounding civilians in recent weeks.

The announcement also comes after a chemical attack in Eastern Ghouta last week, and an unconfirmed attack in besieged Douma on Thursday. 

The Syrian regime is suspected to be behind the attacks. 

On Thursday, the US government announced that it was prepared to use military action to deter use of chemical weapons. 

Officials also said that Syrian regime of Bashar al Assad may be developing new kinds of chemical weapons. 

TRT World's Kerry Alexander reports.

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Bashar al Assad is believed to have secretly kept part of Syria's chemical weapons stockpile despite a US-Russia deal under which Damascus was supposed to handover all such weapons to be dismantled in 2014, according to senior US officials.

Assad's forces have instead "evolved" their chemical weapons and made continued occasional use of them in smaller quantities since a deadly attack last April that drew a US missile strike on a Syrian air base, the officials told reporters in a briefing.

Characteristics of some of those recent attacks suggest that Syria may be developing new weapons and methods for delivering poisonous chemicals, possibly to make it harder to trace their origin, the officials said.

A deadly sarin attack on a rebel-held area in April last year prompted US President Trump to order a missile strike last year on the Shayrat air base.

"We reserve the right to use military force to prevent or deter the use of chemical weapons," one official said, while declining to specify how serious a chemical attack would have to be to draw a fresh US military response.

A second official said, however, that the Trump administration hopes that stepped-up international sanctions and diplomatic pressure will help rein in Assad's chemical weapons programme.

If the international community does not act quickly to tighten the screws on Assad, Syria's chemical weapons could spread beyond its borders and possibly even "to US shores," the second official said.

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