“UK, France, US, Poland, Netherlands, Sweden, Kuwait, Peru and Cote d’Ivoire have called an emergency meeting of #UNSC to discuss reports of chemical weapons attack in #Syria. Meeting expected on Monday,” the British mission to the UN tweeted on Sunday afternoon.
French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian has also said Paris will “do its duty” if evidence shows Damascus was responsible, AFP reports.
His comments come just weeks after French President Emmanuel Macron said France could strike unilaterally if the Syrian government is found to have crossed the “red line” of using chemical weapons against civilians.
The US Joint Chiefs of Staff is expected to present US President Donald Trump with a list of possible military responses and target lists “within hours,” reports indicate.
A sarin gas attack on Khan Sheikhoun last year prompted the US to launch 59 Tomahawk missiles on a Syrian regime airbase that had allegedly launched the chemical weapon attack. It is not yet clear whether the US will launch a similar military response.
World leaders have condemned the possible chemical weapons attack on a hospital in rebel-held Douma, which is thought to have killed dozens.
On Saturday evening, “a helicopter dropped a barrel bomb that contained a chemical agent in Douma, an enclave in Eastern Ghouta. Forty people, largely children and women, have been killed with hundreds being treated at medical centers,” the volunteer first responders Syria Civil Defence tweeted late on Saturday.
The group, known as the White Helmets, said that families were found “suffocated” in their homes and the number of casualties was rising dramatically.
Tweeting on Sunday morning, President Trump called Syrian President Bashar al-Assad an “animal” and said there would be a “big price to pay” for the attack.
“Many dead, including women and children, in mindless CHEMICAL attack in Syria. Area of atrocity is in lockdown and encircled by Syrian Army, making it completely inaccessible to outside world. President Putin, Russia and Iran are responsible for backing Animal Assad. Big price to pay. Open area immediately for medical help and verification. Another humanitarian disaster for no reason whatsoever. SICK!” Trump tweeted.
The European Union issued a statement on Sunday, saying “the evidence points towards yet another chemical attack by the regime.”
The Syrian government and its allies Russia and Iran have dismissed claims Damascus was behind the attack.
“Allegations of chemical use have become an unconvincing broken record, except for some countries that trade with the blood of civilians and support terrorism in Syria,” Syria’s state news agency SANA quoted a foreign ministry source as saying.
“Every time the Syrian Arab Army advances in the fight against terrorism, allegations of chemical use are used as an excuse to prolong the life of terrorists in Douma,” it said.
The Russian foreign ministry meanwhile rejected US claims that Moscow holds ultimate responsibility for the Syrian government’s actions, and cautioned against a military response.
“We must once more warn that a military intervention under far-fetched and fabricated pretexts in Syria, where there are Russian soldiers at the request of the legitimate Syrian government, is absolutely unacceptable and could have the most dire consequences,” the foreign ministry said in a statement.
The Iranian foreign ministry branded the allegations a “conspiracy” against its ally and a pretext for military action.
“Such allegations and accusations by the Americans and certain Western countries signal a new conspiracy against the Syrian government and people, and a pretext for military action,” it said in a statement, according to AFP.
Through heavy bombardment and negotiated evacuations, Damascus has gained control of about 95 percent of the former rebel stronghold of Eastern Ghouta. More than 1,600 civilians have been killed in the onslaught since mid-February.
