US: Syria regime is responsible for chemical attack in Ghouta

The US reiterated the Syrian regime’s responsibility for the chemical attack in Eastern Ghouta, which killed more than 1,400 civilians, many of them children.

Washington demanded that the Assad regime fully declare and destroy its chemical weapons programme, in accordance with its international obligations, and allow the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) team to enter the country to carry out an assessment of the situation in Syria, in addition to resolving all remaining concerns about the regime’s chemical weapons programme.

US State Department spokesman Ted Price said, in a statement released yesterday to commemorate the attack: “Nine years ago, early in the morning of August 21, 2013, the Assad regime released the nerve agent sarin on Syrian civilians in the Ghouta district of Damascus, killing more than 1,400 people — many of them children.”

“Today, we recall with continuing horror this tragic event and we recommit ourselves to accountability for the perpetrators,” he added.

“The United States remembers and honours the victims and survivors of the Ghouta attack and the many other chemical attacks we assess the Assad regime has launched.”

Price also said that “The United States strongly supports international and Syrian-led efforts to seek justice for the innumerable atrocities committed against the people of Syria, some of which rise to the level of war crimes and crimes against humanity.  We also reaffirm our support for an inclusive political resolution to the Syrian conflict in line with UN Security Council resolution 2254.”

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“We condemn in the strongest possible terms any use of chemical weapons anywhere, by anyone, under any circumstances. There can be no impunity for those who use chemical weapons; the United States uses all available tools to promote accountability for such attacks,” said Price.

The ninth anniversary of the massacre, which passed without punishment, comes after regional Arab parties announced their intention to normalise their relations with the Syrian regime. This disappointed the majority of Syrian opposition amid accusations the world is being silent in the face of one of the biggest massacres in modern history.