Assad regime behind gas attack: UN
new york — United Nations investigators on Thursday blamed a sarin gas massacre on Bashar Al Assad’s regime, as the United States renewed its warning that he has no role in Syria’s future.
The expert panel’s report and tough remarks by US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson overshadowed the announcement that UN-sponsored peace talks will resume next month.
More than 87 people died on April 4 this year when sarin gas projectiles were fired into Khan Sheikhun, a rebel-held town in the Idlib province of northwestern Syria.
Images of dead and dying victims, including young children, in the aftermath of the attack provoked global outrage and a US cruise missile strike on a government air base.
Syria and its ally Russia had suggested that a rebel weapon may have detonated on the ground but the UN panel confirmed Western intelligence reports that blamed the government.
“The panel is confident that the Syrian Arab Republic is responsible for the release of sarin at Khan Sheikhun on 4 April 2017,” the report says.
The report will increase pressure on Assad’s government just as Washington, in the wake of battlefield victories against the Daesh group, renews calls for him to step down.
Secretary of State Rex Tillerson’s comments to reporters came during a visit to Geneva in which he met UN envoy Staffan de Mistura, who is trying to convene a new round of peace talks next month.
The secretary said US policy has not changed, but his remarks represented tougher language from an administration that had previously said Assad’s fate is not a priority.
“We do not believe there is a future for the Assad regime, the Assad family,” Tillerson said.
Russia, which is running a parallel peace process with Iran and Turkey in a series of talks in the Kazakh capital Astana, reacted coolly to Tillerson’s remarks.
“I think we should not pre-empt any future for anybody,” said Moscow’s UN ambassador Vassily Nebenzia, who on Tuesday had vetoed a US attempt to extend the gas attack probe.
De Mistura hopes to convene an
I’ve said it on a number of occasions. the reign of the assad family is coming to an end, and the only issue is how should that be brought about Rex Tillerson, US Secretary of State
eighth round of Syrian peace talks between Assad’s government and an opposition coalition in Geneva from November 28.
These will be focused on drafting a new constitution and holding UN-supervised elections in a country devastated by several overlapping bloody civil conflicts.
Assad’s government has been saved by Russian and Iranian military intervention and he insists that he will not stand down in the face of what he regards as terrorist rebels.
Tillerson said that he hopes a way to oust Assad will “emerge” as part of de Mistura’s UN-mediated talks.
He argued that the UN Security Council resolution setting up the peace process already contains a procedure to hold elections that Washington does not think Assad can win.
“The only thing that changed is when this administration came into office, we took a view that it is not a prerequisite that Assad go before that process starts, rather the mechanism by which Assad departs will likely emerge from that process,” he said.
Earlier, de Mistura had told the UN Security Council that with the defeat of the Daesh, the Syrian
I call on russia to stop covering up for its abhorrent ally and keep its own commitment to ensure that chemical weapons are never used again Boris Johnson, UK Foreign Secretary
peace process had reached a “moment of truth”.
“We need to get the parties into real negotiations,” the envoy said. — AFP
time and again, we see independent confirmation of chemical weapons use by the assad regime. yet, we still see some countries trying to protect the regime. Nikki Haley, US envoy to UN
even the first cursory read shows that many inconsistencies, logical discrepancies, using doubtful witness accounts and unverified evidence... (in the report) Sergei Ryabkov, Russia Deputy FM