UK has 'grave concern' on alleged Syria chemical attack

By Ahmet Gurhan Kartal

LONDON (AA) – Britain said on Friday that they work with international partners to name and hold accountable those responsible for a chemical attack in May in Syria.

Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab said in a statement that Bashar Al-Assad’s “track record of using chemical weapons against the Syrian people is an appalling stain on his regime and the countries that support him.”

Raab added that the U.K. has “grave concerns about the chemical attack in May in Syria.”

“We have shared these concerns with the OPCW,” he said, referring to the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons.

Raab’s reaction came a day after the U.S. alleged, citing intelligence, that Syrian regime forces used chlorine as a chemical weapon in a May 19 attack on the western port city of Latakia.

"This attack was part of the Assad regime's ongoing violent campaign in Idlib, which has killed more than 1,000 innocent Syria and displaced thousands more," Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said Thursday.

"Assad has used chemical weapons every year since Syria's ascension to the chemical weapons convention in 2013. The United States will not allow these attacks to go unchallenged, nor will we tolerate those who choose to conceal these atrocities," he added.

“We continue to work with our partners to ensure that those responsible for chemical attacks are named, shamed and held to account.”