‘Gas attack’: UN urged to act

Turkey demands action against Syria but Obama reluctant

BEIRUT: President Barack Obama has called the apparent gassing of hundreds of Syrian civilians a “big event of grave concern” but stressed he would not rush to embroil Americans in a costly new war.

Meanwhile Turkey has urged the UN Security Council to take “concrete action” after a deadly attack in Syria in which it said chemical weapons had clearly been used.

Syria’s opposition has accused government forces of gassing hundreds of people near Damascus by firing rockets that released deadly fumes over rebel-held suburbs.

Damascus has dismissed the allegation.

In a television interview on Thursday, Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan said it was “very obvious” chemical weapons had been used.

The UN stepped up demands on Syria to allow them access to rebel-held Damascus suburbs hit by the gas.

Syrian President Bashar alAssad’s opponents said they had sent tissue samples with couriers to try to get them to a UN inspection team.

Turkey, once an ally of Assad, has long been concerned about the possible use of chemical weapons across its southern border.

Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu met his British and German counterparts and an Iranian minister in recent days to discuss the attack.

Obama yesterday brushed over an interviewer’s reminder that he once called the use of chemical weapons a “red line” for US action on Syria.

Noting budget constraints, problems of international law and a continuing US casualty toll in Afghanistan, Obama said: “The US continues to be the one country that people expect can do more than just simply protect their borders. But that does not mean that we have to get involved with everything immediately.”

Asked about his chemical weapon warning a year ago, he replied: “If the US goes in and attacks another country without a UN mandate and without clear evidence that can be presented, then there are questions in terms of whether international law supports it.”

International powers, including Moscow, have urged Assad to co-operate with a UN inspection team which arrived on Sunday to pursue earlier allegations of chemical weapons attacks and to give them access to affected areas.

However, there was no public response from the Syrian government, whose forces have been pounding rebel positions for days. Syria denies being responsible and has in the past accused rebels of using gas.

UN secretary-general Ban Ki-moon, who is sending a top official to lobby Assad, said: “I can think of no good reason why any party, either government or opposition forces, would decline this opportunity to get to the truth of the matter.”

Russia, Assad’s main arms supplier, said the opposition was preventing the objective investigation of what happened. Britain said it now believed Assad’s forces carried out the attack.

Opposition activists said they had been in contact with the specialist UN team in Damascus and had sent tissue samples with couriers seeking to slip across from the Ghouta region into the governmentheld centre to deliver them to the inspectors.

Speaking from the town of Arbin, one of those affected by mysterious deaths from poisoning, opposition activist Abu Nidal told Reuters: “The UN team spoke with us and since then we prepared for them samples of hair, skin and blood and smuggled them back into Damascus with trusted couriers.”

Activist Abu Mohammed, in Harasta, said: “We’re being shelled and on top of that Ghouta is surrounded by regime checkpoints. But even that isn’t a problem – we can smuggle them out.

“The problem is the location of the UN committee in the hotel. They’re under heavy guard and government minders.”

The rebels’ efforts could prove futile; only material that has a clear provenance and a “chain of custody” would generally be treated as evidence by UN inspectors.

A US official familiar with initial intelligence assessments said on Thursday that the gassing appeared to be the work of the Assad government.

Images showed scores of bodies laid out on floors with no visible signs of injury. Some had foam from nose and mouth.

French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius said on Thursday that world powers must respond with force if allegations that Syria’s government was responsible for the worst chemical attack on civilians in 25 years prove to be true.

Fabius stressed there was no question of sending in troops.

Syrian officials say allegations against their forces are “illogical and fabricated”.

They point to the timing of the attack, just days after UN inspectors arrived, and say it conflicts with previous assurances that, if they possessed chemical weapons, they would never use them against Syrians.

Former weapons investigators say every hour matters in determining if chemicals were used and who was behind them. – Reuters

PICTURE: REUTERS VICTIM: People lower the body of a victim, of what activists said was a gas attack, into a grave during a funeral in Hamoria, in the eastern suburbs of Damascus

PICTURE: REUTERS DEFIANT: A man holds an image during a protest in front of the Syrian embassy in Sofia, Bulgaria.