Kuwait City: Kuwait has called for international “deterrent” action against Syria following an alleged chemical attack near Damascus last week.
A government statement urged the international community “to assume its moral responsibility towards the crimes committed in Syria and take practical deterrent measures to prevent” new attacks.
The statement comes as the United States and Britain laid out their case for punitive military strikes against Damascus over the alleged August 21 chemical attack.
The government at an extraordinary session tasked a special team to follow up on regional events and activate contingency plans and take necessary precautions to preserve national security and stability. It examined rapid developments witnessed in the region following increasing news about an imminent military operation in Syria, against backdrop of the regime “crime of employing chemical arms” in Al-Ghouta in Damascus suburbs last week, claiming hundreds of civilian and innocent lives.
“That was a criminal act, prohibited by international laws and conventions, and breached humanitarian principles and norms.”
The cabinet warned of prospects of more chemical attacks in Syria that would result in “fall of more victims, unless the international community shoulder the moral responsibility of facing such criminal actions and take deterrent action to avert their recurrence.”
UN chief Ban Ki-moon has appealed for the West to give peace a chance, saying arms inspectors on the ground in Syria would report back to him by Saturday on their probe into the alleged attack.
Rights groups say hundreds of people were killed, including children, when poisonous gas was unleashed on suburbs of Damascus last week.
The Syrian opposition has blamed regime forces for the attack but the government of Syrian President Bashar Al Assad blamed rebels.
