US President Donald Trump’s national security adviser warned Wednesday that Washington would respond “very strongly” if Syrian government uses chemical weapons in an operation to liberate Idlib province from terrorists.
“We now see plans for the Syrian regime to resume offensive military activities in Idlib province,” John Bolton told a press conference during a visit to Al-Quds (Jerusalem).
“We are obviously concerned about the possibility that Assad may use chemical weapons again,” he said.
“Just so there’s no confusion here, if the Syrian regime uses chemical weapons we will respond very strongly and they really ought to think about this a long time.”
The last major terrorists’ bastion in Syria is now Idlib and the Syrian government has been preparing a wide-scale offensive to retake the northern province.
In April the United States, France and Britain launched joint aggression on Syrian targets, using a fabricated chemical attack in the town of Douma as a pretext.
On the other hand, Bolton said that the Trump administration was not seeking to oust Iran’s leadership with its reimposition of sanctions on Tehran.
“Regime change in Iran is not American policy but what we want is massive change in the regime’s behavior,” he said.
Bolton arrived in the occupied territories on Sunday for three days of talks expected to focus mainly on Iran and its presence in Syria.
Furthermore, in his remarks on Wednesday, Bolton offered cover for Israeli attacks against Syria, describing the Israeli aggressions as acts of “self-defense”.
“Every time that Iran has brought missiles or other threatening weapons into Syria in recent months Israel has struck those targets,” Bolton said.
“I think that’s a legitimate act of self-defense on the part of Israel,” he added.
Source: AFP
