PARIS: The US and France yesterday said that international backing was growing for military strikes to punish the Syrian regime for an alleged chemical attack, after European Union nations called for a “strong” response.
US Secretary of State John Kerry said the number of countries ready to take military action was now in the “double digits”, after earlier attending a meeting where EU foreign ministers united to call for action against Syrian President Bashar Al Assad’s regime. The EU did not explicitly back military action, but Kerry said he was “encouraged” by the “very powerful statement” made by the bloc.
He said there was “a number of countries, in the double digits, who are prepared to take military action. We have more countries prepared to take military action than we actually could use in the kind of military action being contemplated.” The US accuses the Assad regime of gassing more than 1,400 people to death in an August 21 attack. AFP
