National Post (National Edition)
SYRIA WANTS UN PROBE OF GAS ATTACK
Syria’s UN ambassador said Tuesday the use of chemical weapons is not only “a red line” but “a blood line” that cannot be tolerated and again demanded a UN investigation of an alleged chemicalweapons attack in Aleppo that it blames on rebels.
Bashar Ja’afari said his government has bodies and other proof chemical weapons were used in Khan al-Assad in Aleppo March 19 and wants this incident investigated first. The rebels blame the government for the attack.
He added Damascus is demanding details of another alleged chemical weapons attack Britain and France say was carried out by the government in Homs on Dec. 23 before it will even consider allowing UN experts to conduct an investigation in that city.
He disclosed Qatar also sent a letter to the United Nations “claiming the use of chemical weapons in other parts of Syria,” without giving dates or locations.
Pressed by reporters, Mr. Ja’afari declined to confirm Syria has chemical weapons.
“The Syrian government has always emphasized that the Syrian government will not use, if it possesses any, chemical weapons on its own people,” he said.
“The use of chemical weapons in Syria and elsewhere in the world is not only a red line, it’s a purple line, it’s a blood line, and nobody is tolerated or will be tolerated to use such horrific weapon of mass destruction.”
He was speaking as President Barack Obama strongly suggested at a news conference in Washington he would consider military action against Syria if it can be confirmed President Bashar Assad’s government used chemical weapons in the country’s two-year-old civil war.
Mr. Obama said while there is evidence that chemical weapons were used inside Syria, “we don’t know when they were used, how they were used. We don’t know who used them. We don’t have a chain of custody.”
If it can be established the Syrian government used chemical weapons, he added, “we would have to rethink the range of options that are available to us.”
Mr. Ja’afari blamed opponents of the Syrian government, which he didn’t name, for launching “a campaign of incitement” which has included “trumped-up charges and fraudulent accusations against Syria,” as well as a media, diplomatic and political campaign.
He said it was similar to the campaign leading to the 2003 Iraq war, when the United States and Britain claimed Iraq had weapons of mass destruction. The claim proved to be false.
“What happened in Iraq is still alive in our minds,” he added.
Mr. Ja’afari insisted the UN team of chemical weapons experts should immediately go to Syria to investigate the Khan al-Assad incident, but made no commitment to investigating the other claims.
UN spokesman Martin Nesirky said later the UN experts “will look into the incidents in the order received,” so the Khan al-Assad attack “is the first one, but [Ban Kimoon], the secretary-general, feels that he cannot engage in a partial investigation, there needs to be investigation of all allegations.”
Meanwhile, two people were killed and 20 others were injured in northwestern Syrian province of Idlib after warplanes dropped bags containing “strange substances,” Al-Jazeera reported, saying the suspicious material was apparently chemical weapons.
Videos uploaded by the Qatari news network show casualties having difficulties breathing being treated in makeshift hospitals. One video showed a health-care professional drawing attention to white foam coming out of an injured man’s mouth.