U.S. Secretary of State John F. Kerry told members of Congress on Thursday that Syrian President Bashar Assad has violated the chemical weapons agreement he agreed to earlier this year.
The Assad regime has been accused of using weaponized chlorine to kill citizens in Al Tamanah, Talmanes and Kafr Zeta.
“We believe there is evidence of Assad’s use of chlorine, which, when you use it — despite it not being on the list — it is prohibited under the Chemical Weapons Convention,” Mr. Kerry said while testifying on Capitol Hill. “He’s in violation of the convention.”
The Hague-based Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons conducted an investigation into the claims and concluded that a toxic chemical was used “systematically and repeatedly,” Reuters reported Sept. 10.
“Five months after we proved that Assad had [crossed] the U.S. red line that chemical weapons must not be used, Secretary Kerry has now stated that Assad has broken international law,” said Hamish de Bretton-Gordon, a former British army officer who led a Telegraph investigation into the chlorine attacks, the paper reported Thursday. “Surely there must be action to stop this now.”
• Douglas Ernst can be reached at dernst@washingtontimes.com.
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