President Trump’s national security adviser, John Bolton, warned the Syrian government that it should not take the planned U.S. military pullout from Syria as a sign that it could begin using chemical weapons.
“There is absolutely no change in the U.S. position against the use of chemical weapons by the Syrian regime and absolutely no change in our position that any use of chemical weapons would be met by a very strong response, as we’ve done twice before,” Bolton, who has been traveling to Israel and Turkey, told reporters on his plane.
“So the regime, the Assad regime, should be under no illusions on that question,” he added.
Trump said in December that the U.S. military succeeded in its mission to defeat the Islamic State and would be withdrawing ground troops from the country. The decision led in part to the resignation of Jim Mattis from his post as secretary of defense.
Trump has ordered the bombing of Syria twice during his presidency after its government allegedly used chemical weapons.
Bolton said his comments weren’t meant to suggest that Syria appeared to be planning to use chemical weapons but that if they were to be used, “a lot of options would be on the table … if they don’t heed the lessons of those two strikes the next one will be more telling.”
“As we elaborate how the withdrawal is going to occur and the circumstances, we don’t want the Assad regime to see what we do as representing any diminution in our opposition to the use of weapons of mass destruction,” he said.
