The following statement was issued by National Security Council spokesperson Ned Price.
Today,
the U.S. Department of the Treasury announced sanctions designations
for 18 senior Syrian regime officials in response to the Organization
for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons
(OPCW)-United Nations (UN) Joint Investigative Mechanism (JIM) reports
last year that confirmed the regime’s use of chlorine as a chemical
weapon in 2014 and 2015 through an independent and neutral expert
investigation. This is the first time the United States
is sanctioning specific Syrian officials in connection with Syria’s
violation of the Chemical Weapons Convention and UN Security Council
Resolution 2118.
We
condemn in the strongest possible terms the Syrian regime’s use of
chemical weapons. The Asad regime’s barbaric continued attacks
demonstrate its willingness to defy basic standards of
human decency, its international obligations, and longstanding global
norms. Syria agreed to join the Chemical Weapons Convention after its
horrifying sarin chemical attack on Syrian civilians in the Ghouta area
of Damascus on August 21, 2013, which killed
more than a thousand people, many of them children. The United States
worked closely with partners after that attack to remove and destroy the
Syrian government’s declared chemical weapons program – an
unprecedented operation to eliminate a dangerous threat
to innocent civilians in Syria and the international community.
The
United States remains committed to working with our international
partners to use all appropriate diplomatic mechanisms to hold the Syrian
regime accountable for its abhorrent use of
chemical weapons. We strongly urge every UN member state and parties
to the Chemical Weapons Convention, including Russia, to support efforts
to enforce accountability through the UN Security Council and using
domestic law. The international community must
make clear that chemical weapons use is unacceptable and violators will
face significant consequences for their actions.
Source: The White House, Office of the Press Secretary
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