SyriaUN inspectors’ report points strongly to Syrian government’s culpability in 8/21 chemical attack
UN chemical weapons inspectors will on Monday submit their report to UN secretary general Ban Ki-Moon, in which they will say that they have collected a “wealth” of evidence which points to the Syrian government as being responsible for using chemical weapons against its own people.
The journal Foreign Policy, in an exclusive story, reports that that UN chemical weapons inspectors will on Monday submit their report to UN secretary general Ban Ki-Moon in which they will say that they have collected a “wealth” of evidence which points to Syrian president Bashar al-Assad as being responsible for using chemical weapons against his own people.
Three UN-based diplomats familiar with the investigation told Foreign Policy that the inspection team will not directly accuse the Syrian regime of gassing its own people, but it will provide a strong circumstantial case — based on an examination of spent rocket casings, ammunition, and laboratory tests of soil, blood, and urine samples — that strongly implicates the Syrian government in the attack.
The team will not directly point a finger at the Assad regime because under the terms of the inspection team’s mandate, the UN inspectors are only authorized to conclude whether chemical weapons have been used in Syria, not assign responsibility for their use.
“I know they have gotten very rich samples — biomedical and environmental — and they have interviewed victims, doctors and nurses,” a Western official told the journal. “It seems they are very happy with the wealth of evidence they got.” The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, could not identify the specific agents detected by the inspector team, but said, “You can conclude from the type of evidence the [identity of the] author.”
Syria and Russia have rejected the charge that the Assad regime carried out the attack, arguing it was the rebels who used chemical agents in order to persuade the West to intervene militarily on their behalf.
Syria and Russia pointed to several alleged chemical weapons attacks which, they maintain, hit Syrian forces. The Syrian government initially invited UN inspectors to Syria to investigate an alleged 19 March 19 sarin attack in the town of Khan al Assal, near Aleppo.
Diplomats say that the Monday report will discuss only the 21 August attack on al Ghouta attacks. The inspection team will return to Syria at a later date to finalize its investigations into the other incidents, including the 19 March incident at Khan al Assal.
