Britain Follows US and France, Threatens Syria with Military Action

As the Damascus government has repeatedly denied using chemical weapons against civilians, London came after Washington and Paris, stressing that it should consider air raids in Syria if its leader is found to have used chemical weapons on civilians.

“If we know that it has happened, and we can demonstrate it, and if there is a proposal for action where the UK could be useful then I think we should seriously consider it,” Britain’s Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson told the BBC on Tuesday.

The so-called Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which is sympathetic to anti-Damascus militants, reported on Monday that scores of civilians suffered breathing difficulties after a Syrian bomber struck the village in the Eastern Ghouta region in the Syrian capital’s suburbs.

It came hours after Moscow warned that militants in East Ghouta, who continue to hold civilians hostage and to shell Damascus in breach of a humanitarian pause, may stage a provocative chemical attack. Russia has repeatedly stressed that the militants in East Ghouta deliberately undermine humanitarian and reconciliation efforts by armed provocations.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has also dismissed as “bogus stories” the recent reports of an alleged chemical attack in the militant-held enclave of Eastern Ghouta, stressing that government forces have attacked foreign-sponsored Takfiri terrorists.

In a similar statement, President Emmanuel Macron said mid-February that “France will strike” if chemical weapons are used against civilians in the Syrian conflict in violation of international treaties, but that he had not yet seen proof this was the case.

The Spokesperson for the United States administration had also accused Syria of preparing to stage a chemical attack in the Arab country, threatening that Washington would make Damascus pay “a heavy price”.

As Washington claims that it fights against the ISIL group, US warships fired 59 Tomahawk cruise missiles from two warships in the Mediterranean Sea at the Shayrat airfield in Homs province in early April 2017, following a chemical weapons incident in Idlib province which the Western countries blamed on the Damascus government.

The Syrian government has fiercely denied using or even possessing chemical weapons since the country’s compliance with the Chemical Weapons Convention was certified by international observers in 2013, as the world is still waiting for the US and its allies to provide any proof for its claims of Bashar al-Assad government's involvement in the alleged chemical attack.

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad had characterized the alleged chemical attack in Khan Sheikhoun as a provocation to justify the US strike on Shayrat airbase in Homs province. The Syrian leader had also warned of the possibility of the new provocations similar to the one in Idlib.

The UN Security Council unanimously adopted a resolution on 30-day ceasefire in Syria on Sunday. The resolution does not apply to ISIL, Al-Nusra Front or any other terrorist organization. The local militant units, which include Jeish al-Islam, Jabhat al-Nusra, Ahrar al-Sham, Faylaq al-Rahman and Fajr al-Ummah Brigade continued to shell Damascus in complete disregard of the ceasefire, according to the Russian Center for Reconciliation in Syria.