Monday at the Pentagon Secretary of Defense James Mattis said he would not rule out a possible U.S. military strike against Syrian President Bashar Assad’s regime in response to a suspected chemical gas attack on civilians over the weekend.

Mattis said, “The first thing we have to look at is why are chemical weapons still being used at all when Russia was the framework guarantor of removing all chemical weapons, and so working with our allies and partners from NATO to Qatar and elsewhere we are going to address this issue.”

When asked if he would rule out air strikes against Assad, Mattis said, “I don’t rule out anything right now.”

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