A Statement by the President of the Syrian Coalition on the Use of Chemical Weapons

Syrian Coalition

Presidential Office

August 29, 2013

As part of its policies of killing and destroying, the criminal Assad regime has used chemical weapons several different times in the past couple of weeks. In Gouta, on the 21st of August, the Assad regime carried out a large scale chemical weapons attack killing nearly 2000 people and injuring thousands, including women and children.

Different countries including France, the United Kingdom, and the United States of America have confirmed, through several analyses and intelligence reports, that Assad’s regime has used chemical weapons in different areas across Syria in the past two years.

As President of the Syrian Coalition, the umbrella group that represents the main Syrian opposition, including different political groups, revolutionary forces, and the Free Syrian Army, I reiterate our condemnation of the use of chemical weapons against innocent civilians. The Assad regime’s use of these weapons is an act of genocide against the Syrian people and is punishable under International Law. Perpetrators of such crimes must be held accountable.

We, in the Syrian Coalition, strongly condemn the use of chemical weapons anywhere in the world, and furthermore denounce the developing and stockpiling of these weapons by any country.

We also denounce developing, stockpiling, and using all Weapons of Mass Destruction, including nuclear weapons, which Israel has, and Iran aspires to have. We call for a region free of WMDs. We call for a world free of WMDs. Developing WMDs is not the solution to deter the use of such weapons. It is through the disarmament of WMDs that the world will be a safer place. We, in Syria, have suffered the horrors of these weapons due the Assad regime. We do not want peoples of the world to experience the same suffering.

August 29, 2013

President of the National Coalition of Syrian Revolution and Opposition Forces

Ahmad Assi Al Jarba