France has called for an emergency meeting of the UN Security Council following the suspected chemical weapons attack by the Syrian government on the northern province, Idlib.
An estimated 65 citizens are dead, including 11 children under the age of eight, and another 300 are reportedly wounded. This marks the third report of a chemical attack in just one week in Syria.
France’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, Jean-Marc Ayrault, called the attacks “atrocious,” and went on to describe them as a threat to national security.
France, which is a permanent member of the UN Security Council, has supported Syrian rebels against President Bashar al-Assad for years and lobbied for an international military campaign against Assad over the use of chemical weapons in 2013.
Despite the Syrian government denying responsibility, French President François Hollande didn’t mince words when blaming Assad for the attack.
Hollande said in a statement that:
“Once again the Syrian regime will deny the evidence of its responsibility in this massacre. Like in 2013, Bashar al-Assad counts on the complicity of his allies to act with impunity…Those who support this regime can once again assess the magnitude of their political, strategic and moral responsibility.”
The UN Syria envoy, Staffan de Mistura, added that the UN Security Council would meet to identify “clear identification of responsibilities, accountability.”
WATCH: World leaders condemn alleged chemical attack in Syria
The UN Security Council is already scheduled to hold its monthly meeting on Syria’s chemical weapons on Wed, April 5 in Brussels, which over 70 countries are expected to attend. Reports indicate that this meeting may be moved up.
The EU high representative for foreign affairs Federica Mogherini and the UN special envoy for Syria also held a joint news conference in Belgium on the future of Syria.
Several other nations have publicly come out against the Syrian regime in response to these attacks. The Turkish foreign minister, Mevlut Cavusoglu, has condemned the alleged attacks by the Syrian government and criticized the West for not intervening in similar past events. Israel’s prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu has called to rid Syria of chemical weapons following the attacks, saying he was “shocked and outraged” by the images of dead victims. The White House also eventually placed blame for the attacks on Assad and the Syrian regime.
WATCH: White House blames Syria’s Assad regime for alleged chemical attack
UN war crimes investigators said in a statement that they are looking into the attack on Idlib, as well as reports that a medical facility was also targeted. If the Syrian regime is found accountable for these attacks, investigators say that the use of chemical weapons, as well as deliberate targeting of medical facilities, would result in “serious violations of human rights law.”
(With files from Reuters and the Canadian Press)
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