By Heshmat Alavi
ying images of Bashar Assad’s most recent massacre through an atrocious chemical attack staged by his Sukhoi 22 warplanes targeting the city of Khan Sheikhoon in IdlibProvince, in Syria’s north. At least 100 suffocated to death and more than 400 were left injured with symptoms similar to those caused by sarin gas. Most of the victims were women and children and even the hospital where the victims were being treated was bombed.
While
the Syrian opposition delegation involved in the Geneva talks said this
chemical attack has left future negotiations looking bleak, this horrific act
of vicious barbarity should pinpoint the international community’s attention on
the main element behind all this carnage: Iran’s
involvement in Syria in
a diehard effort to maintain the dictator Bashar Assad in power.
A
wave of international condemnations followed this killing spree.
“Today’s
chemical attack in Syria against innocent people, including women and children,
is reprehensible and cannot be ignored by the civilized world,” U.S. President
Donald Trump said in a statement.
“While
we continue to monitor the terrible situation, it is clear that this is how
Bashar al-Assad operates: with brutal, unabashed barbarism,” U.S. Secretary of
State Rex Tillerson said through a statement,
urging Russia and Iran to prevent Assad from the use of chemical attacks.
European
Union High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Federica
Mogherini held the Syrian regime responsible for this horrendous chemical
attack.
British
Foreign Minister Boris Johnson called for accountability for those behind the
dreadful Idlib attack and his French counterpart Jean-Marc Ayrault requested an
emergency United Nations Security Council meeting.
German
Foreign Minister Sigmar Gabriel said the world must not neglect Assad’s crimes
and Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu condemned the Idlib attack as an
inhumane crime.
The
scene on the ground is considered even too gruesome to describe. Physicians in
Idlib have called on the international community for their support. Idlib’s
White Helmets warned of a humanitarian catastrophe in Khan Sheikhoun, adding
Assad’s bombing campaign is targeting their sites and even known medical
centers.
The
Syrian Physicians Organization said the al-Rahme hospital in Khan Sheikhoun was
targeted in six different bombing raids, leaving no doubt of Assad’s
indifference between military and non-military targets.
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