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鈥� A daily summary of global reports on security issues.

United Nations weapons inspectors were forced to turn back from visiting the site of an alleged chemical weapons attack in Syria after their vehicles came under fire from snipers聽on聽Monday.聽

The incident is a setback for those hoping the inspectors would provide a more objective determination on whether the Assad regime had in fact gassed its own people. Russia and Iran have been insisting there is not enough proof that the regime was behind the chemical weapons attack last week, and continue to urge restraint in any international response.聽

But other international players are already saying there is little doubt, laying the groundwork for an intervention in Syria without the approval of the United Nations Security Council, which Russia has thwarted.

British Foreign Secretary William Hague said today that Britain and its allies did not need the unanimous approval of council members, insisting that a response would be 鈥渂ased on great humanitarian need and distress鈥� and would not violate international law.

鈥淚s it possible to respond without complete agreement on the Security Council? I would argue yes it is,鈥� Mr. Hague said, according to the BBC. 鈥淥ther countries including France are very clear that we can鈥檛 allow the idea that chemical weapons in the 21st century can can be used with impunity.鈥�

The divided council has not 鈥渟houldered its responsibilities,鈥� he said, insisting that if it had been united, there would have been a 鈥渂etter chance of bringing this conflict to an end a long time ago.鈥�

The insistent, widespread push for an intervention 鈥� after more than two years in which international parties largely urged and pursued policies of restraint 鈥� emerged abruptly after an attack on the Damacus suburb of Ghouta last week. According to the opposition, the attack left some 1,300 dead. International humanitarian organization Doctors Without Borders (MSF) said it treated more than 3,000 people for symptoms "consistent with exposure to toxic nerve agents," The New York Times reports. More than 300 of those people died.

Now an international coalition for intervention is coalescing, even before UN inspectors could spend time at the scene of last week's attack today, Bloomberg reports.

Iran, the only regional ally of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad other than Hezbollah, warned that Israel could become "the victim" if international parties attacked Syria, according to Bloomberg.聽聽

鈥淲hat happened in Syria five days ago is beyond our worst imagination 鈥撀爐he use of chemical weapons as weapons of mass destruction,鈥� Yuval Steinitz, Israel's minister of strategy, told journalists today at a Jerusalem briefing. 鈥淭he world can鈥檛 allow this to happen. The world can鈥檛 allow this to proceed.鈥�

In an interview with Russian newspaper Izvestia, Mr. Assad flatly denied the accusations, Reuters reports.

But Britain, for one, has no doubt that the Syrian regime used chemical weapons, according to McClatchy:

Invoking the principle of the "responsibility to protect," the foreign minister of Kosovo urged in a column for Foreign Policy that the international community act without the approval of the Security Council. A NATO intervention in the Balkans in 1999 brought an end to a bloody ethnic cleansing campaign there, and has been cited repeatedly in the last few days by proponents of an international intervention.聽