Israel urges to completely disarm Syria of chemical weapons

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday called on the international community to completely disarm Syria of its chemical weapons in the wake of the deadly chemical attack in Idlib.

Speaking at the start of his weekly cabinet meeting, Netanyahu noted a resolution by the United Nations Security Council from 2013, which requires Syria to destruct its entire chemical weapons arsenal by mid-2014.

"As we have seen, this commitment has yet to be fully implemented," he said.

"We call on the international community to complete the work, and this is an opportunity for American-Russian cooperation in this specific area," Netanyahu said.

"This work needs to be completed," he added.

Over the weekend, Israeli leaders offered wall-to-wall praises for the United States' strike on Syria on Thursday, two days after a chemical attack in the northern Syrian province of Idlib, which left at least 86 people dead.

President Reuven Rivlin hailed the U.S. as "an example to the entire free world." In a statement released on his behalf, he urged the international community to "support any step required to bring the atrocities in Syria to an end."

On Sunday, Netanyahu reiterated Israel's support for the U.S. airstrike, during which U.S. military fired 59 Tomahawk missiles at the President Bashar Assad controlled airbase.

"Israel fully supports the American attack on Syria. They did this for moral reasons in light of the harsh scenes from Idlib and also to make it clear that there is a price for using chemical weapons," Netanyahu said.

Israel objects Assad's regime, but has avoided intervening officially in the six-year-long war in Syria officially.

It did, however, provide medical treatment to hundreds of wounded Syrians who reached the border. It has also carried out airstrikes on weapons convoys to Hezbollah, an Iranian-backed group that fights alongside the Syrian forces. Endit