‘Global red line’ crossed

US Secretary of State John Kerry says he and Arab League foreign ministers have agreed that the Syrian president’s alleged use of chemical weapons crossed a “global red line”. Mr Kerry, speaking in Paris, is in Europe to muster support for action against President Bashar al-Assad. “Assad’s deplorable use of chemical weapons crosses an international, global red line,” he said. Mr Assad has reportedly again denied any link to the attack. In an interview for US broadcaster PBS, to be broadcast on Monday, Mr Assad also reportedly “suggested that there would be, among people that are aligned with him, some kind of retaliation if a strike was made”, PBS said. Arab countries are divided on the question of military strikes on Syria. The US accuses Mr Assad’s forces of killing 1,429 people in a sarin gas attack on 21 August. Mr Assad’s government blames the attack on rebels fighting to overthrow him in the country’s two-and-a-half-year civil war, which has claimed some 100,000 lives, according to UN estimates.

Courtesy: www.bbc.com