Saudi Arabia is consulting with its allies on a response to the Assad regime’s chemical gas attack on the Syrian city of Douma, Foreign Minister Adel Al-Jubeir said on Tuesday.
“Our position is that those who are responsible for the use of chemical weapons must be held accountable and brought to justice,” Al-Jubeir said.
Asked if Saudi Arabia would join any military action against the Syrian regime, the minister said: “All I can say is that there are discussions on the options available to deal with this matter.”
US President Donald Trump has said there would be a “big price” to pay for the attack, which killed up to 70 people.
If the US launches a missile strike, “the bloodied hands of members of the regime and their headquarters responsible for the deaths of hundreds of thousands of Syrians should be targeted,” Syrian opposition spokesman Yahya Al-Aridi told Arab News on Tuesday.
So far, there had been no talk of regime change, he said, but “if the strike happens everybody is thinking of the day after.”
Meanwhile, inspectors with the global chemical weapons watchdog will travel to Douma, in Eastern Ghouta near Damascus, to investigate the attack. Syria has been asked to “make the necessary arrangements for such a deployment,” the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons said.
“This has coincided with a request from Syria and Russia to investigate the allegations of chemical weapons use in Douma. The team is preparing to deploy to Syria shortly.”
Doctors and eyewitnesses have said victims showed symptoms of poisoning, possibly by a nerve agent, and reported the smell of chlorine gas.
