U.S. threatens Syria, says Assad is
planning chemical weapons attack
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[June 27, 2017]
By Jeff Mason and John Walcott
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The White House
warned Syrian President Bashar al-Assad on Monday that he and his
military would "pay a heavy price" if it conducted a chemical weapons
attack and said the United States had reason to believe such
preparations were underway.
The White House said in a statement released late on Monday the
preparations by Syria were similar to those undertaken before an April 4
chemical attack that killed dozens of civilians and prompted U.S.
President Donald Trump to order a cruise missile strike on a Syrian air
base.
"The United States 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
spokesman 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 U.S. plans or the intelligence that prompted the statement
about Syria's preparations for an attack.
Trump, who took to Twitter not long after the statement went out,
focused his attention on a Fox News report related to former President
Barack Obama and the 2016 election rather than developments in Syria.
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 with the AFP news agency earlier this year
that the alleged April attack was "100 percent fabrication" used to
justify a U.S. air strike.
The strike was the toughest direct U.S. action yet in Syria's
six-year-old civil war, raising the risk of confrontation with Russia
and Iran, Assad's two main military backers.
'ABNORMAL ACTIVITY'
U.S. and allied intelligence officers had for some time identified
several sites where they suspected the Assad government may have been
hiding newly made chemical weapons from inspectors, said one U.S.
official familiar with the intelligence.
The assessment was based in part on the locations, security surrounding
the suspect sites and other information which the official, who spoke on
condition of anonymity, declined to describe.
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Syria's President Bashar al-Assad speaks during an interview with
Croatian newspaper Vecernji List in Damascus, Syria, in this handout
picture provided by SANA on April 6, 2017. SANA/Handout via REUTERS
The White House warning, the official said, was based on new reports
of what was described as abnormal activity that might be associated
with preparations for a chemical attack.
Although the intelligence was not considered conclusive, the
administration quickly decided to issue the public warning to the
Assad regime about the consequences of another chemical attack on
civilians in an attempt to deter such a strike, said the official,
who declined to discuss the issue further.
At the time of the April strike, U.S. officials called the
intervention a "one-off" intended to deter future chemical weapons
attacks and not an expansion of the U.S. role in the Syrian war.
The United States has taken a series of actions over the past three
months demonstrating its willingness to carry out strikes, mostly in
self-defense, against Syrian government forces and their backers,
including Iran.
The United States ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley said
on Twitter: "Any further attacks done to the people of Syria will be
blamed on Assad, but also on Russia and Iran who support him killing
his own people."
Washington has repeatedly struck Iranian-backed militia and even
shot down a drone threatening U.S.-led coalition forces since the
April military strike. The U.S. military also shot down a Syrian jet
earlier this month.
Trump has also ordered stepped-up military operations against the
Islamic State militant group and delegated more authority to his
generals.
(Reporting by Jeff Mason and John Walcott; Additional reporting by
Eric Beech, Patricia Zengerle, and Michelle Nichols; Writing by Yara
Bayoumy and Jeff Mason; Editing by Paul Tait)
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