UN official slams US red line policy on Idlib

GENEVA

A UN official criticized the U.S. on Wednesday on its “red line” policy, stating that the red line for the UN would be “any attacks on the civilian population” in Idlib.

"Civilians have been sacrificed in the fight against terror and in the efforts of the of the state to regain control over the country,” said UN's Hanny Megally in a news conference in Geneva.

Megally is a member of the Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Syrian Arab Republic tasked with investigating all alleged violations of international human rights law since March 2011 in Syria.

He added: "Many more people are being killed by the blatant disregard for the international humanitarian law by all parties to the conflict [than chemical weapons]."

Calling on all actors do everything “in their power to prevent a massacre in Idlib”, the commission's chairman, Paulo Sergio Pinheiro, said the best way of doing so was to find a political solution to the conflict.

Upon a question on the U.S. administration’s red line policy, Megally said, "If any member state [the U.S.] says 'you know the red line is the use of chemical weapons', we would say the red line is any attacks on the civilian population."

GENEVA

A UN official criticized the U.S. on Wednesday on its “red line” policy, stating that the red line for the UN would be “any attacks on the civilian population” in Idlib.

"Civilians have been sacrificed in the fight against terror and in the efforts of the of the state to regain control over the country,” said UN's Hanny Megally in a news conference in Geneva.

He added: "Many more people are being killed by the blatant disregard for the international humanitarian law by all parties to the conflict [than chemical weapons]."