The United States, Saudi Arabia and Pope Francis condemned Saturday's chemical gas attack on Syria’s Douma, east of Ghouta, while Russia and the Syrian regime denied claims of chemical weapons use.
“These reports, if confirmed, are horrifying and demand an immediate response by the international community,” US State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert said in a statement.
“The Assad regime and its backers must be held accountable and any further attacks prevented immediately,” she added.
“Russia, with its unwavering support for the regime, ultimately bears responsibility for these brutal attacks.”
Saudi Arabia
Saudi Arabia has expressed deep concern and condemned the purported chemical attack on Douma in the eastern region of Syria, according to an official source at the Kingdom’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Pope Francis
At the end of a Mass in St. Peter’s Square, the Pope said that, “there is no such thing as a good war and a bad war. Nothing, but nothing, can justify the use of such instruments of extermination on defenseless people and populations.”
He urged that “military and political leaders choose another path, that of negotiations, which is the only one that can bring about peace and not death and destruction.”
Moscow, Damascus deny claims
Russia’s military is rejecting claims that Syrian government forces used chemical weapons in an attack on the rebel-held town of Douma.
Maj. Gen. Yuri Yevtushenko was quoted by Russian news agencies on Sunday as saying Russia was prepared to “promptly send Russian specialists in radiation, chemical and biological protection to Douma after its liberation from fighters to gather data that will confirm the fabricated nature of these statements.”
Yevtushenko said “a number of Western countries” are trying to prevent the resumption of an operation to remove Army of Islam fighters from Douma and “to this end they are using the West’s pet theme of the use of chemical weapons by Syrian forces.”
This article has been adapted from its original source.
