U.S. to take 'firm, appropriate measures'
against Syria violations
Send a link to a friend
[June 15, 2018]
By Brendan O'Brien
(Reuters) - The United States will "take
firm and appropriate measures" in response to Syrian government
violations in a designated de-escalation zone in the country's
southwest, the State Department said on Thursday.
After seven years of conflict, the southwest of Syria, bordering Jordan
and the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights, is one of the parts of the
country still outside the state's control.
President Bashar al-Assad's forces have recovered swathes of territory
from rebels with the help of Russian air power and Iran-backed militias,
and he has repeatedly pledged to take back "every inch".
Experts have investigated reported use of chemical weapons by Assad's
government. More than 500,000 people have been killed in the fighting,
which has drawn in global powers and neighboring states.
Assad said on Wednesday his government was still pursuing a political
solution for Syria's rebel-held southwest, but would use military force
if the effort failed.

"We are giving the political process a chance," he told Iranian channel
al-Alam News in an interview published in an English translation by
Syrian state news agency SANA.
"If that doesn't succeed, we have no other option but to liberate it by
force."
Since last year, a "de-escalation" deal brokered by Jordan, Russia and
the United States has contained fighting in the southwest.
The state department said any Syrian government military actions against
that zone risked broadening the conflict.
"We affirm again that the United States will take firm and appropriate
measures in response to Syrian government violations in this area," it
said in a statement on Thursday.
[to top of second column]
|

The U.S. flag flutters on a military vehicle in Manbej countryside,
Syria May 12, 2018. REUTERS/Aboud Hamam/File Photo

An underpinning ceasefire arrangement and the de-escalation deal are
intended to save lives and create conditions for the displaced to
return home safely, it added.
"The ceasefire must continue to be enforced and respected," it said.
The statement comes after Syrian jets struck rebel-held towns in the
country’s south in March, rebels and residents said, the first
aerial attacks on the area since the pact declaring it a
"de-escalation zone."
As a member of the U.N. Security Council, Russia "is duly
responsible" to "use its diplomatic and military influence over the
Syrian government to stop attacks and compel the government to cease
further military offensives," the state department said.
Early on Thursday, the State Department said the United States would
release $6.6 million to the Syrian Civil Defense fund, commonly
known as the White Helmets, and the U.N. International, Impartial
and Independent Mechanism, which collects and analyzes evidence of
violations of international human rights laws.
(Reporting by Brendan O'Brien in Milwaukee; Editing by Robert Birsel
and Clarence Fernandez)
[© 2018 Thomson Reuters. All rights
reserved.]
Copyright 2018 Reuters. All rights reserved. This material may not be published,
broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Thompson Reuters is solely responsible for this content.
 |