WASHINGTON – The White House has blamed a deadly chemical weapons attack in Syria’s Idlib province on the government of President Bashar al-Assad and said the incident was “reprehensible and cannot be ignored by the civilised world.”

“These heinous actions by the Bashar al-Assad regime are a consequence of the last administration’s weakness and irresolution,” White House spokesman Sean Spicer told a briefing. “President Obama said in 2012 that he would establish a ‘red line’ against the use of chemical weapons and then did nothing.”

Spicer declined to say what the US administration would do about the attack but added President Donald Trump had spoken on Tuesday with his national security team about the issue.

A suspected Syrian government chemical attack killed scores of people, including children, in the northwestern province of Idlib on Tuesday, a monitoring group, medics and rescue workers in the rebel-held area said. The Syrian military denied responsibility and said it would never use chemical weapons.

The head of the health authority in rebel-held Idlib said more than 50 people had been killed and 300 wounded. The Union of Medical Care Organisations, a coalition of international aid agencies that funds hospitals in Syria, said at least 100 people had died.

Spicer reiterated the view expressed by Trump’s top aides in recent days that the US is not now focused on making Assad leave power and the priority instead is on defeating Islamic State militants.

That was a departure from the Obama administration’s public stance on Assad’s fate, and drew criticism for playing down a long-standing US goal to help end the six-year-long Syrian civil war.

Spicer said statements last week by Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and UN Ambassador Nikki Haley “speak to the political realities of the situation in Syria” and that there is no longer a fundamental option of “regime change.”

President Barack Obama set a “red line” in 2012 warning of military action if Assad’s forces used chemical weapons in the civil war. But in 2013 he backed away from carrying out threatened air strikes once a deadly chemical weapons attack was confirmed. That raised concerns among US allies in the Middle East about Obama’s commitment to using force in the region.

Asked if the Trump administration would draw another red line, Spicer said, ”I’m not ready to talk about our next step, but we will get there soon.”

– Reuters