Clinton Warns Assad on Chemical Weapons, Syria Says it Won't Use them
إقرأ هذا الخبر بالعربية
U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on Monday issued a "strong warning" to the regime of Bashar Assad over the potential use of chemical weapons against the Syrian people.
"This is a red line for the United States," Clinton said after meeting Czech Foreign Minister Karel Schwarzenberg in Prague.
"Once again we issue a very strong warning to the Assad regime that their behavior is reprehensible. Their actions against their own people have been tragic," she added.
But she stressed that Washington would address any threat that arises.
"I'm not going to telegraph in any specifics what we would do in the event of credible evidence that the Assad regime has resorted to using chemical weapons against their own people, but sufficing to say that we're certainly planning to take action if that eventuality were to occur," the top U.S. diplomat stressed.
But a foreign ministry official said Syria will never use chemical weapons against its own people if such weapons exist.
"In response to the statements of the U.S. secretary of state, Syria confirms repeatedly that it will never, under any circumstances, use chemical weapons against its own people," state television quoted the official as saying.
Syria is believed to have several hundred ballistic surface-to-surface missiles capable of carrying chemical warheads.
Its arsenal is a particular threat to American allies Turkey and Israel.
President Barack Obama declared the Assad regime's deployment or use of chemical weapons a "red line" for U.S. intervention in the Syrian civil war earlier this year.
03 December 2012, 13:37
26
Like Saddam before him, when cornered he will resort to anything in his arsenal... If he has nothing to loose anymore... The time is now to take out his chemical stash and take him out in the process...
03 December 2012, 15:24
00
Yes, just like the weapons of mass destruction we initially went to Iraq for... oh wait, that was a lie. Right?
03 December 2012, 19:44
13
it looks like it's over
those are the last days of bashar's regime
03 December 2012, 20:14
22
The Arab League chief says the ASSad regime could fall at anytime. He is already a mass murderer and war criminal. He has nothing to lose. Plus he is a pathological liar.
03 December 2012, 20:54
11
The only reason u support assad cause he is alawi. There is no reigion u have or morals and u know nothing about imam hussein
03 December 2012, 22:10
20
You're right. But back then t was the cold war. Western world and USSR were selling loads of weapons... Iraq was mainly supported by the soviets, Iran by the US until it flipped. It was a total mess. But by the end of the day, who pressed the trigger? An Iraqi.
But thumb up for you FT because you're partially correct.
04 December 2012, 01:49
00
Actually not even partially correct. They are unsure as of right now of all who sold the chemical weapons to Saddam Hussein. There is a man in jail right now sentenced to 16 years of hard labor for selling chemical weapons to Saddam Hussein, and there is a huge team of scientists right now in the city that was bombed analysing the remains of the victims to find out the manufactorers of these chemicals to make them pay for their mistakes. The professor in charge of this investigation said they are VERY likely to find out each and every responsible company in this case.
See unlike your barbaric ways where you hide this information the western world always owns up to their mistake and punish (even if late) their perpetrators. Perhaps you can learn from them.
04 December 2012, 01:58
00
I love it when someone reads one side of the coint and not the other. The US was certainly involved in MANY wars and trust me when I say no one regrets them more than the mothers and fathers of the brave dead soldiers that fought to help people against their oppressor, be it Hitler, Saddam Hussein, or Ghaddafi.
US, is also a major supplier of weapons, but unlike Russian post-USSR countries you rarely if EVER see their weapons on the blackmarket or you ever see a terrorist country using an F-16 to bomb their people. Please don't forget the hundreds of million spent equipping the brave lebanese soldiers to do their jobs defending this country (instead of the rusty tincans they were provided as hand me downs from Syria coming from Russia).
I think the good they provided to this world FAR outweighs the bad, compared to Russia or China and what they have done to this world.
