Syria strikes ‘for honor of international community’ — Macron

STRASBOURG, France — France, Britain and the United States carried out airstrikes targeting chemical weapons sites in Syria to defend the “honor of the international community,” French President Emmanuel Macron says.

In an impassioned defense to the European Parliament, Macron says the allies had to act to defend global rules and accused Syrian leader Bashar Assad of being “at war with his people.”

“Those who are shocked by images of women, of children who have been attacked by chlorine, we need to stand up to defend our rights. What are we going to say, our rights and principles are just for us? No, that simply isn’t acceptable,” Macron says.

“Three countries have intervened, and let me be quite frank, quite honest — this is for the honor of the international community,” Macron says.

He adds that the strikes were conducted “within a legitimate, multilateral framework, and in a very targeted way without any human victim, not a single human victim, to destroy three sites where chemical weapons were being produced or processed.

“These strikes don’t necessarily resolve anything but I think they were important,” he says.

— AFP