US State Department calls on Assad regime to reveal and destroy its chemical weapons program on ninth anniversary of Ghouta chemical attack

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. State Department issued a statement on the ninth anniversary of the Syrian regime’s perpetration of the chemical attack on Ghouta in the Daramsuq (Damascus) countryside that killed more than 1,400 people, including children, with sarin gas, an internationally prohibited weapon.

The statement affirmed the U.S.’s commitment to holding the perpetrators of this tragic incident accountable, in addition to using all available tools to promote accountability for such attacks. The statement also condemned the use of chemical weapons anywhere in the world, by whoever, and under any circumstances.

The U.S. also called on the Assad regime to fully declare and destroy its chemical weapons program in accordance with its international obligations and to allow the team of the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) to ensure that Syria does not possess any internationally banned weapons.

The statement confirmed the U.S. support for the international efforts to achieve justice for the massacres against the Syrian people, some of which amount to crimes against humanity.