UK Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson said Friday that the United Kingdom would advocate imposing sanctions against those responsible for April’s chemical attack in Syria.
Earlier in the day, the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) said that its Fact-Finding Mission confirmed that a human-made chemical sarin was used in the attack in Syria’s Idlib province in early April.
“We will drive on with the UK campaign to impose sanctions on those responsible [for the attack] … People who drop chemical weapons on innocent people should be held to account … The exact responsibility for dropping the sarin will now go to a joint investigative mechanism to be confirmed, but I’ve got absolutely no doubt that the finger points at the Assad regime,” Johnson told the Sky News broadcaster.
Dozens of people were killed during chemical weapons incident in Khan Sheikhoun in Syria’s Idlib province on April 4. The country’s National Coalition for Syrian Revolutionary and Opposition Forces blamed the incident on Assad’s forces, with Western countries following suit.
On April 6, the United States, which had not presented any proof of Damascus’ use of chemical weapons, launched a cruise missile strike on the Syrian military airfield in Ash Sha’irat in response to the alleged chemical attack.
The Syrian government authorities have denied any involvement in the incident, while Russia called for a proper investigation.
Later in April, Assad told Sputnik that there was no chemical weapon attack in Idlib, adding that the reports of it were a false flag and fabrication which was supposed to justify a US missile strike on a Syrian armed forces’ airbase.