French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian said on Saturday that missile strikes carried out overnight in Syria by
Britain, France and the US had destroyed a “large part” of the Damascus government’s stocks of chemical weapons.
“A large part of its chemical arsenal has been destroyed,” Le Drian told BFM television. “A lot has been destroyed in last night’s strikes.”
He also said France had “solid intelligence” that the regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad was behind the gas attack in the rebel-held city of Douma last weekend, which monitors say killed at least 40 people.
“On the question of chemical weapons, there is a red line that must not be crossed, and if it should be crossed again, there will be another intervention,” Le Drian said. “But I think the lesson has been learned.”
At the same time, experts warned that the three allies were on dubious legal ground themselves in carrying out the unilateral action.
Moscow, Syria’s main backer in the seven-year civil war, immediately demanded an emergency meeting of the UN Security Council, saying the Western powers had violated “the UN charter and the norms and principles of
international law”.
Analysts agreed that in striking Syria without UN authorisation — impossible given Russia’s repeated vetoes on the Security Council — the United States, Britain, France were relying instead on a nebulous concept of
“legal morality”.
“The violation of conventions doesn’t give you the right to use force,” said Francoise Saulnier, legal director at the Doctors Without Borders aid group, which has a long history of intervening in humanitarian crises.
Under UN rules, military force against a foreign power is allowed under just three conditions: legitimate self-defence, at the request of the country where it would occur, or in case of a Security Council authorisation.
British Prime Minister Theresa May also called the strikes “right and legal”, saying the international community would not tolerate the continued use of chemical weapons.