Following the decision to pull U.S. troops out of Syria, National Security Adviser John Bolton reportedly cautioned the Syrian government on Saturday that the drawdown should not be viewed as an opening to use chemical weapons.
The U.S. official was traveling to Israel when he expressed there was “absolutely no change” in the U.S.’s stance on the matter of chemical weapons, according to The Wall Street Journal.
“As we elaborate how the withdrawal is going to occur and the circumstances, we don’t want the Assad regime to see what we do as representing any diminution in our opposition to the use of weapons of mass destruction,” Bolton said, adding that “the Assad regime should be under no illusion.” His comments referred to Syria’s president, Bashar al-Assad.
Bolton said that any such usage “will be met by very strong response,” according to the report.
“We’ve tried twice through the use of military force to demonstrate to the Assad regime the use of chemical weapons is not acceptable,” the official said, The Associated Press reported. “And if they don’t heed the lessons of those two strikes, the next one will be more telling.”- READ MORE