Intelligence officials in the West have concluded that forces loyal to Syrian President Bashar Assad used chemical weapons in their war against rebels. The information relates to two incidents in the Damascus area on March 19. However, various intelligence agencies, first and foremost the Americans, have not concluded whether the material used was a toxic chemical or a material that paralyzes only and does not kill. | Whew! I thought for a moment we were crossing a red line... |
Washington has reiterated that the use of chemical weapons by the Assad regime would constitute an unequivocal red line, which if crossed is liable to spur American involvement in the crisis.
“We will not tolerate the use of chemical weapons against the Syrian people,” U.S. President Barack Obama said in his address last month at the Jerusalem International Convention Center, two days after the use of chemical weapons was first reported. “The world is watching, and we will hold you accountable.”
On March 19 accusations were exchanged between the Assad regime and the rebels regarding the use of chemical weapons in two areas in Syria – near Halab and in the area of Damascus. At the end of March there were reports that western intelligence agencies believed that it was actually the rebels who had used chemical weapons, having succeeded, by an undetermined method, to fire chlorine gas at a Syrian army checkpoint at Khan al-Assal, a village near Halab. According to these reports, 26 people were killed in that attack and dozens were injured.
In the attack near Damascus, the rebels reported that an unknown number of people were suffering breathing problems as a result of the use of chemical weapons by AssadÂ’s forces.
UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said on Monday in The Hague that the United Nations is preparing to send a chemical weapons investigation team within 24 hours to check the allegations of chemical weapons strikes. According to Ban, an advance team is waiting in Cyprus while the UN negotiates with Assad’s regime over the delegation’s mandate. Ban said that all reports of the use of chemical weapons “should be examined without delay, without conditions and without exceptions.”