Chemical weapons in Syria: Latest suspicions revive 'red line' debate
Syrian opposition groups allege that the regime killed more than 1,300 people with the help of chemical weapons. The government denies the reports.
Syrian opposition groups allege that the regime killed more than 1,300 people with the help of chemical weapons. The government denies the reports.
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The drumbeat for international intervention in Syria's civil war picked up again as footage of Syrian civilians dead or in respiratory distress began circulating on the Internet 鈥� the victims, allegedly, of a chemical weapon attack yesterday by the Syrian regime.
Last night French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius said that "force" was needed if the claims could be proven, although he also said troops on the ground were not an option.
"If the [United Nations] Security Council cannot do it, decisions will be made otherwise," Mr. Fabius said, according to CNN.
The Wall Street Journal reports that Turkey, a staunch ally of the Syrian opposition, also called for action.
"In Syria all red lines were crossed, but the UN Security Council has not been even able to come up with a resolution.鈥� This event is one that cannot be ignored anymore," Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said in a joint news conference with German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle. "The Security Council should not remain indecisive and apply the most powerful precautions in this issue.鈥� Otherwise, much worse massacres will take place."
Yesterday's alleged attack occurred in eastern and western Ghouta, outside Damascus. The regime has been trying to take the rebel strongholds for more than a year, according to CNN. By the end of the day, Syrian opposition groups were reporting more than 1,300 dead. The Syrian government denied the reports.
But the US is clearly trying to calm the international community's furious urgency, calling for an investigation before any decisions are made.聽
"If the Syrian government has nothing to hide and is truly committed to an impartial and credible investigation of chemical weapons use in Syria, it will facilitate the UN team's immediate and unfettered access to this site," the White House statement said, according to CNN.
Reports of chemical weapons attacks have circulated before; those previous allegations are what brought the UN inspections team to Syria yesterday. This attack will "eclipse" all others in Syria if proven true,聽Greg Thielmann at the Arms Control Association in Washington told McClatchy. A previous US assessment found that the regime had conducted only small-scale attacks, killing about 150 people.
But the US will have a very difficult time confirming the chemical weapons attack, and there are reasons to doubt the claims, or at least the scope of them. If true, they imply that the regime carried out the chemical weapons as United Nations chemical weapons inspectors arrived to investigate earlier allegations 鈥� which Syria observers deemed "nonsensical," McClatchy reports.
McClatchy notes that if the attack could be confirmed, it would be the "clearest example yet of a breach of the 'red line'" that President Barack Obama warned the leader not to cross.
But Tamara Cofman Wittes, director of the Brookings Institution鈥檚 Saban Center for Middle East Policy in Washington and the Obama administration's deputy assistant secretary for near eastern affairs until last year, says Obama's red line has "eroded," and even that might not be enough to prompt a US intervention given the increasing role jihadists are playing among the rebels, and Hezbollah and Iran's involvement.
In a blog post for The Washington Post examining "Five reasons the US doesn't act on Syria's chemical weapons," Max Fisher writes: