Emmanuel Macron says France has ‘proof’ chemical weapons used in Syria

ERBIL (Kurdistan 24) – French President Emmanuel Macron on Thursday said his country had evidence the Syrian regime, under the leadership of Bashar al-Assad, had used internationally banned chemical weapons against civilians in eastern Ghouta last week.

“We have proof that chemical weapons were used last week, at least chlorine, and that they were used by the [Assad] regime,” Macron stated during an interview with France’s TF1 television.

The French President noted that he was in “daily contact” with his American counterpart Donald Trump, adding the two allies would decide when to respond “at a time of our choosing, when we judge it to be the most useful and the most effective.”

Macron had previously expressed his anger at the Syrian regime’s use of chemical weapons in the years-long civil war, describing it as a “red line.”

Although he said he wanted to avoid “an escalation,” Macron stressed that one of his aims in Syria was to “remove the regime’s chemical attack capabilities.”

On Wednesday, Trump warned he would fire missiles at the Syrian base where the chemical weapons were launched while Russia said they would intercept any such attack.

In a press conference on Tuesday, the French President said the decision to launch strikes in Syria would “not target allies of the regime or attack anyone but rather attack the regime’s chemical capabilities.”

The poison gas attack reported on April 7 was blamed on the Syrian regime—who Russia backs in the ongoing civil war in the country—and has sparked an aggressive response from the US, the United Kingdom, and France who are all opposed to Assad and Moscow’s support for him.