‘Assad will pay heavy price for chemical attack’

WASHINGTON: The White House warned Syrian President Bashar al-Assad yesterday that he and his military would “pay a heavy price” if it conducted a chemical weapons attack and said the US had reason to believe such preparations were underway.

The White House said in a statement that the preparations by Syria were similar to those undertaken before an April 4 chemical attack that killed dozens of civilians and prompted US President Donald Trump to order a cruise missile strike on a Syrian air base.

“The US has identified potential preparations for another chemical weapons attack by the Assad regime that would likely result in the mass murder of civilians, including innocent children,” White House spokesperson Sean Spicer said.

“If ... Mr Assad conducts another mass murder attack using chemical weapons, he and his military will pay a heavy price,” he said.

White House officials did not respond to requests for comment on potential US plans or the intelligence that prompted the statement.

Trump ordered the strike on the Shayrat airfield in Syria in April in reaction to what Washington said was a poison gas attack by Assad’s government that killed 87 people in rebel-held territory. Syria denied it carried out the attack.

Assad said in an interview earlier this year that the alleged April attack was a “fabrication” used to justify a US air strike. At the time of the April strike, US officials called the intervention a “one-off”. – Reuters