Reno: US President Barack Obama warned Bashar al-Assad on Monday that it would be Syria’s “tragic mistake” if chemical weapons were unleashed.
Earlier, threatened to use such weapons if it faced foreign military intervention.
“Given the regime’s stockpile of chemical weapons, we will continue to make it clear to Assad and those around him that the world is watching,” Obama told an audience of US veterans in the western state of Nevada.
“They will be held accountable by the international community and the United States should they make the tragic mistake of using those weapons,” AFP quoted him as saying.
Earlier, Syrian foreign ministry spokesman Jihad Makdissi had warned Syria could use chemical weapons if attacked by outsiders.
“Syria will not use any chemical or other unconventional weapons against its civilians, and will only use them in case of external aggression,” he said.
Denouncing Makdissi’s words as “horrific and chilling,” US State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said “that any possible use of these kinds of weapons would be completely unacceptable.”
“The Syrian regime has a responsibility to the world, has a responsibility first and foremost to its own citizens to protect and safeguard those weapons,” she insisted to reporters.
“That kind of loose talk just speaks to the kind of regime that we’re talking about.”
Pentagon press secretary George Little also warned Syria: “They should not think one iota about using chemical weapons.”
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