One step closer to war: Macron 'has proof' Assad used chemical weapons
FRENCH President Emmanuel has said he has PROOF that chemical weapons were used by the Syrian government .
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He added he would decide on what action to take once all the information has been verified.
Speaking today, the French leader said: "We will need to take decisions in due course, when we judge it most useful and effective."
He added: "We have proof that chemical weapons were used last week, at least chlorine, and that they were used by the regime of Bashar al-Assad."
Macron previously vowed to launch military action if France had evidence of chemical weapons being used.
Speaking today he vowed to fight against terrorism, ensure international law is upheld and added that beinging a free regime to Sryia is the only thing to ensure peace in the country.
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He has suggested chlorine may have been used in the atrocity that killed at least 60 people and injured more than 1,000 others.
Syria has said all claims of involvement in the attack are false.
He also revealed he was in contact with President Trump, and added he wanted to avoid "escalation".
He said: "France will in no way allow an escalation or anything that would harm regional stability, but we cannot allow regimes that believe they can act with impunity to violate international law in the worst possible way."
Sky
Reports suggested more than 500 people, mostly women and children, were taken to medical centres with difficulty breathing, foaming at the mouth and burning sensations in the eyes.
The US and its allies, including the UK, have been considering whether to hit Syria over the suspected poison gas attack that medical relief organisations say killed dozens of people in the rebel-held town of Douma near Damascus on Saturday.
Speaking to Sky News this morning, the Chair of the International Institute for Strategic Studies Council (IISS) said a strike against Syria's rogue regime will be inevitable after French President Emmanuel Macron announced Syrian President Bashar al-Assad had "crossed his red lines" on the use of chemical weapons.
Mr Heisbourg added a strike would be aimed at Syria's chemical weapons capability and will be conducted with the help of US President Donald Trump.
He said: “The position is very clear, Macron stated some months ago that the use of chemical weapons would be a red line which if crossed would entail a French military response.
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“He stated earlier today that the red line had been crossed and therefore the assumption has to be that there will be a French military strike, probably conducted with the United States of America in fairly short order.
Mr Macron's statement comes after a war of words between President Trump and Moscow yesterday - the US President warned Russia "missiles are coming" and the Kremlin responded by vowing to blow up US ships.
An astonishingly volatile tweet from Trump about proposed US intervention in Syria said: "Get ready Russia, because they [missiles] will be coming, nice and new and “smart!”.
The tweet further incensed Russia who had already warned US missiles would be shot down and “launch sites” – believed to be the two American warships on patrol in the Mediterranean – would be blown up.
Chancellor Angela Merkel has announced Germany will not join any military strikes against the Syrian government in response to a poison gas attack on an opposition enclave, but supports Western efforts to show that the use of chemical weapons is unacceptable.
"Germany will not take part in possible - there have not been any decisions yet, I want to stress that - military action," she said after meeting Danish Prime Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen in Berlin.
"But we support everything that is being done to show that the use of chemical weapons is not acceptable," she added.