U.S. says 8 more countries join call for int'l response to alleged Syrian chemical attack

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WASHINGTON, Sept. 10 -- The White House said Tuesday eight more countries have signed on to a joint statement that supports the U.S. call for a strong international response to the alleged use of chemical weapons by Syria last month.

This brought to 32 the total number of countries that support the United States in condemning the alleged Syrian government's use of chemical weapons on Aug. 21 in the suburbs of Damascus, which Washington claims killed more than 1,400 people, and calling for "a strong international response."

The new signatories to the statement, signed by the United States and 10 countries last Friday on the sidelines of the Group of 20 summit at St. Petersburg, Russia, included Georgia, Guatemala, Kuwait, Malta, Montenegro, Panama, Poland and Portugal, the White House said in a statement.

The 10 countries that signed on to the statement on Syria in St. Petersburg were Australia, Britain, Canada, France, Italy, Japan, Republic of Korea, Saudi Arabia, Spain and Turkey.

On Monday, 14 more countries, including Albania, Croatia, Denmark, Estonia, Germany, Honduras, Hungary, Kosovo, Latvia, Lithuania, Morocco, Qatar, Romania and the United Arab Emirates, signed the statement to stand behind the United States in its dealing with the Syria crisis.

"We welcome additional countries expressing their support for this statement and our continued efforts to hold the (Bashar) Assad regime accountable and enforce the international norm against the use of chemical weapons," the White House said.

In the joint statement, the signatories said evidence clearly points to the Syrian government being responsible for the Aug. 21 attack as part of a pattern of its chemical weapons use, while vowing to hold Damascus accountable for the "grave violation of the world rules and conscience."

"We support efforts undertaken by the United States and other countries to reinforce the prohibition on the use of chemical weapons," it said, citing that the United Nations remains " paralyzed" as it has been for two and a half years during the civil war in Syria.

Short of explicitly supporting the planned U.S. military action on Syria, the statement said Syria's conflict has no military solution and they reaffirmed their "commitment to seek a peaceful political settlement" through full implementation of the 2012 Geneva Communique on seeking a peaceful solution to the Syria crisis.

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