US accuses Syria of chemical weapons attack, vowing to not let it go ‘unchallenged

.S. intelligence has determined that the Syrian regime of Bashar al-Assad used chlorine as a chemical weapon on May 19, according to Secretary of State Mike Pompeo. He said the Trump administration will not let it go “unchallenged.” The attack — which the State Department had previously warned about — is just the latest atrocity Assad’s regime is said to be responsible for in Syria’s eight-and-a-half-year old war, many of which amount to “war crimes and crimes against humanity,” Pompeo said Friday. Days after the United Nations announced that Assad and the Syrian opposition agreed to finally convene a

constitutional committee to begin a negotiated settlement to the war, the U.S. has been rallying Western and Middle Eastern allies and partners to hold the line of pressure against Assad. In particular, the U.S. has tried to use funding for reconstruction, vowing to withhold any until Syria and its chief backer Russia agree to a political process. The announcement that the constitutional committee will convene in the coming weeks is a sign of that campaign’s success, according to U.S. special envoy for Syria James Jeffrey, calling it a “glimmer of hope that this conflict can be ended the right way.”
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