Washington : US Defence Secretary Jim Mattis has said that Syria will pay a "very, very stiff price" if it used chemical weapons again and asserted that Americas top priority in Syria remained fighting the Islamic State militant group. "If they use chemical weapons, they are going to pay a very, very stiff price," Mattis told reporters during his first Pentagon briefing as defence chief. Notwithstanding the Russian allegations that the US is selling a false narrative over the use of chemical weapons by the authoritarian Syrian regime, Mattis defended the American missile attacks against Syria last week. "Last Tuesday on the 4th of April, the Syrian regime attacked its own people using chemical weapons. I have personally reviewed the intelligence, and there is no doubt the Syrian regime is responsible for the decision to attack and for the attack itself," he said.
"In response to the attack, our government began a deliberate process, led by the National Security Council, to recommend diplomatic and military options to the president. We met over several days and I spoke with some of our allies," he added. Mattis said the National Security Council considered the near-century-old international prohibition against the use of chemical weapons, the Syrian regimes repeated violations of that international law, and the inexplicably ruthless murders the regime had committed. "We determined that a measured military response could best deter the regime from doing this again. As always, we examined how best to avoid civilian casualties in the execution of the strike, and our actions were successful," Mattis said.
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Based on these considerations, on April 6, the president directed military action consistent with our vital national interests to deter the use of chemical weapons," he said. This military action demonstrates that the US will not passively stand by while Assad blithely ignores international law and employs chemical weapons he had declared destroyed, he added. "We were aware of the presence of Russians at the airfield and took appropriate actions to ensure no Russians were injured in the attack," he said. Mattis said the US military policy in Syria has not changed. PTI
