{"id":15001,"date":"2018-09-14T02:22:53","date_gmt":"2018-09-14T02:22:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/?p=15001"},"modified":"2018-09-14T02:22:53","modified_gmt":"2018-09-14T02:22:53","slug":"french-foreign-minister-warns-against-idlib-chemical-offensive","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/?p=15001","title":{"rendered":"French foreign minister warns against Idlib chemical offensive"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

\nBEIJING: Any chemical weapons attack on Syria\u2019s last opposition stronghold would lead to \u201cconsequences\u201d for the regime in Damascus, French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian warned in Beijing on Thursday.<\/p>\n

\nRussia-backed regime forces have massed around Idlib in recent weeks, sparking fears of an imminent air and ground attack to retake the last major opposition bastion.<\/p>\n

\nSpeaking at a joint press conference with his Chinese counterpart Wang Yi, Le Drian said the use of chemical weapons in the assault would prompt a response from Paris.<\/p>\n

\n\"\"\u201cFrance warns against the use of chemical weapons,\u201d he said, calling it a \u201cred line.\u201d<\/p>\n

\nThe Assad regime has twice been targeted by US air and missile strikes after previous alleged chemical attacks, and US officials have in recent days said additional action would follow if Assad uses the banned weapons in opposition-held Idlib.<\/p>\n

\nThe US launched a missile strike on a Syrian air base in April 2017 after an alleged chemical attack in Idlib, while a second US-led strike, supported by the British and French militaries, took place in April this year.<\/p>\n

\nLe Drian said any regime chemical attack in Idlib would \u201chave the same consequences as we knew in April.\u201d<\/p>\n

\nUN chief Antonio Guterres on Wednesday warned Syria and its backers against a full-scale offensive in Idlib, saying it \u201cmust not be transformed into a bloodbath.\u201d<\/p>\n

\nNerve gas<\/strong><\/p>\n

\nThroughout the seven-year war, Syrian regime forces have repeatedly been accused of targeting opposition-held areas with chemical attacks \u2014 mostly with chlorine but also with deadly sarin nerve gas.<\/p>\n

\nThe regime and Russia have consistently denied the accusations.<\/p>\n

\nBut international investigators have found that on at least three occasions the regime unleashed chemical weapons on civilians, while Daesh was also blamed for using mustard gas.<\/p>\n

\nMore than 360,000 people have been killed across Syria in seven years, a monitoring group said on Thursday.<\/p>\n

\nThe Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said it had recorded the deaths of 364,792 people, nearly a third of them civilians, since protests erupted in March 2011 against Assad.<\/p>\n

\nThe toll represents an increase of about 13,000 people in the past six months, according to the Britain-based monitor, which uses a vast network of sources including fighters, officials and medical staff.<\/p>\n

\nThe war has killed 110,687 civilians, including more than 20,000 children and nearly 13,000 women.<\/p>\n

\nMore than 124,000 pro-regime fighters have died, about half of them pro-Assad troops and the rest an assortment of Syrian and foreign militiamen loyal to Assad.<\/p>\n

\nAmong them are 1,665 from Lebanon\u2019s Hezbollah movement.<\/p>\n

\nThe Observatory recorded the deaths of 64,000 hard-line radicals and terrorists, including from Daesh and former Al-Qaeda affiliate factions.<\/p>\n

\nAnother 64,800 fighters from other forces, including non-extremist fighters, soldiers who defected and Kurdish factions, were also killed since 2011.<\/p>\n

\nThe Observatory said it had confirmed the deaths of another 250 people but could not specify their identities.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

BEIJING: Any chemical weapons attack on Syria\u2019s last opposition stronghold would lead to \u201cconsequences\u201d for the regime in Damascus, French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian warned in Beijing on Thursday. Russia-backed regime forces have massed around Idlib in recent weeks, sparking fears of an imminent air and ground attack to retake the last major opposition…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":15002,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-15001","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-middle_east_news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15001","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=15001"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15001\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/15002"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=15001"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=15001"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=15001"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}