France will strike Syria if chemical weapons use proven

By Yusuf Ozcan

PARIS (AA) - French President Emmanuel Macron said Tuesday he would order a military strike if any evidence emerges that the Bashar al-Assad regime used chemical weapons against civilians in Syria.

Speaking to reporters at Elysee Palace, Macron said the use of chemical weapons against civilians in Syria is France's "red line".

He said French security forces have so far not obtained any evidence on the use of chemical weapons against the civilian population, adding they are "seriously following" the matter.

Macron spoke by phone to Russian President Vladimir Putin on Friday and urged him to call on the Assad regime to "put an end to the unsustainable deterioration of the humanitarian situation in Eastern Ghouta and Idlib".

Syria has been locked in a devastating civil war since March 2011, when the Bashar al-Assad regime cracked down on pro-democracy protests with unexpected ferocity. While UN officials say hundreds of thousands of people have been killed in the conflict, Syrian regime officials say the death toll is closer to 10,000.