Washington
\nUS Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Friday said the United States views the Syrian government military assault on rebel-held Idlib as an escalation of the Syrian conflict, as the State Department warned that Washington would respond to any chemical attack by Damascus.<\/p>\n
The Syrian province of Idlib and surrounding areas are the last major enclave held by rebels opposed to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, a close Russian ally.<\/p>\n
A source has told Reuters Assad is preparing a phased offensive to regain the province.
\n\u201cThe US sees this as an escalation of an already dangerous conflict,\u201d Pompeo said in a post on Twitter in which he also blasted Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov for \u201cdefending (the) Syrian and Russian assault.\u201d<\/p>\n
Lavrov said on Friday the Syrian government had every right to chase militants out of Idlib and that talks continued on establishing humanitarian corridors there.<\/p>\n
The State Department said the new US special representative for Syria, James Jeffrey, would travel to Israel, Jordan, and Turkey a from Saturday to Tuesday on his first official trip abroad.<\/p>\n
Jeffrey and his delegation will \u201cunderscore that the United States will respond to any chemical weapons attack perpetrated by the Syrian regime,\u201d the State Department said in a statement.<\/p>\n
They will also \u201caddress Russia\u2019s specious allegations of international plans to stage a chemical weapons attack in Syria,\u201d the statement said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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