Syria uses chemical weapons, Turkey offers remedy

If the international community winks at Assad's use of chemical weapons again, we will be hearing more news of further atrocities in Syria



The jet fighters from the Syrian regime have attacked settlements in the Syrian province of Idlib with chemical weapons killing at least 70 people, including dozens of women and children, and displaying once again the barbarity of the Bashar Assad administration.

All this is happening as the so-called cease-fire is in effect in the region and the Russians are "monitoring" it.

Idlib was the target of the regime because opposition groups and those sympathizing with them have moved out of Aleppo through an agreement brokered by Turkey and Russia. The cease-fire was supposed to have secured protection for the people of Idlib but that has been proven wrong as the regime jet fighters attacked the city with chemical bombs. Local sources reported that Syrian helicopters also attacked several settlements in the area with barrel bombs containing chemical weapons.

Doctors in the town of Khan Skeikhoun, in the Idlib province, held by the opposition said victims started to choke, vomit and faint, with foam coming out of their mouths. The U.K.-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said women and children were among the dozens killed with reports of "suffocation" by barrel bombs.

The Assad regime is back to using chemical weapons. So what will the international community do in view of this monstrous atrocity?

The Assad regime has done this before and after the international uproar it had "given up" its chemical weapons to international observers. We were told Assad did not have chemical weapons. So now that Assad is back to using these weapons it seems the international community intentionally or unintentionally simply turned a blind eye and the Assad regime simply stored the weapons to be used at a future date.

The Russian mentors of the terrorist Assad, who themselves face terrorist attacks in their own backyard in St. Petersburg, have to see that collaborating with terrorists only brings misery and destruction.

This time Assad has to be stopped. The chemical weapons Assad uses have to be taken away from him for good and he has to pay for his atrocities. Even the Russians cannot stand behind Assad as he commits these gross violations.

The Americans can't simply say they are just interested in fighting Daesh and just turn a blind eye to the dangerous turn of events in Idlib. Tomorrow someone in Syria may decide to use such weapons against the U.S. forces there.Turkey is trying to create its own secure zone that Assad would never dare attack in northern Syria. But the fact that Assad is using his jet fighters and helicopters to attack even the civilians who sympathize with the Syrian opposition shows the urgent need for declaring the safe zones created by Turkey as no-fly zones. This is something that has to be looked into by the international community.

The Russians can secure this zone with their air power and their ground to air S-400 missile systems thus at least offering some hope for the Syrian people trying to escape Assad's atrocities.