MidEast

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Trump: Syria Air Strikes Meant to “Deter the Spread and Use of Deadly Chemical Weapons”

by TheTower.org Staff |

In a brief speech explaining his decision to strike the airfield Syrian planes recently used to attack the Idlib province with chemical weapons, President Donald Trump declared on Thursday that “it is in this vital national security of the United States to prevent and deter the spread and use of deadly chemical weapons.”

Clearly affected by the scenes from Tuesday’s gas attack, Trump said that by “using a deadly nerve agent, [Syrian President Bashar al-Assad] choked out the lives of helpless men, women and children. It was a slow and brutal death for so many. Even beautiful babies were cruelly murdered in this very barbaric attack. No child of God should ever suffer such horror.”

There is “no dispute,” Trump asserted, that in launching the Idlib attack Assad used chemical weapons prohibited by the Chemical Weapons Convention and defied warnings from the United Nations Security Council.

The president blamed Assad for the ongoing Syrian refugee crisis and called on “all civilized nations” to “end the slaughter and bloodshed in Syria.”

Senator Bob Corker (R – Tenn.), chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, praised Trump’s decision to strike the airfield: “The U.S. and world community stood by as Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad brutally tortured and murdered more than 500,000 of his own people, and I applaud President Trump for taking decisive action following the latest chemical weapons attack.”

“It is critical that Assad knows he will no longer enjoy impunity for his horrific crimes against his own citizens, and this proportional step was appropriate,” he added.

Corker’s Democratic counterpart Sen. Ben Cardin (D – Md.), the ranking member of the committee, similarly called the strikes a “clear signal that the United States will stand up for internationally accepted norms and rules against the use of chemical weapons.”

Both senators urged Trump to work with Congress to implement his future policy on Syria.

[Photo: The White House / YouTube ]

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