UN investigates alleged use of chemical weapons in Syria

A UN spokesman has said that investigators from the world body have started collecting evidence outside Syria on the suspected use of chemical weapons.

Ban Ki-moon, UN secretary-general, on Friday wrote to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad with a new request for access to investigators inside the war-torn country.
Last month, both the Syrian government and rebels accused each other of using chemical weapons in an attack on the village of Khan al-Assal outside the northern city of Aleppo.

Following the incident, the Syria government called for the UN to investigate alleged chemical weapons use by rebels.

Syria, however, has still not allowed a team of experts into the country because it wants the investigation limited to the single Khan al-Assal incident, while the UN chief is urging the Syrian government to accept an expanded UN probe.

Weapons inspectors will determine whether banned chemical agents were used in Syrian conflict only if they are able to access sites and take soil, blood, urine or tissue samples and examine them in certified laboratories, according to the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, which works with the UN on inspections.

Assertions of chemical-weapons use in Syria by Western and Israeli officials citing photos, sporadic shelling and traces of toxins do not meet the standard of proof needed for a UN team of experts waiting to gather their own field evidence, the organisation said.

For his part, US President Barack Obama gave warning to Syria that its use of chemical weapons would be a "game changer" for the US but made clear he was in no rush to intervene in the country's civil war on the basis of evidence he said was still preliminary.

Obama was speaking as he met King Abdullah II of Jordan at the White House.

The US president said there was "some evidence that chemical weapons have been used on the population in Syria, these are preliminary assessments, they're based on our intelligence gathering.

"We have varying degrees of confidence about the actual use, there's a range of questions about how, when, where these weapons have been used," he said.

Obama insisted more evidence was still needed and that there would be a "vigorous investigation".

But proof of their use would be a "game changer", he said.

"Horrific as it is when mortars are being fired on civilians and people are being indiscriminately killed, to use potential weapons of mass destruction on civilian populations crosses another line with respect to international norms and international law.

"All of us, not just the United States, but around the world, have to recognise how we cannot stand by and permit the systematic use of weapons like chemical weapons on civilian populations," he said.

According to the UN, at least 70,000 people have been killed in the two-year uprising against Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

The Obama administration's sudden disclosure of its chemical weapons findings came just two days after it played down an Israeli assessment that there had been repeated use of chemical weapons in Syria.

France and Britain have also concluded that evidence suggests chemical arms have been used.

Two Syrian officials denied the US accusations on Friday, with a senior official saying the country did not, and would not, use chemical weapons even if it had them.

Sharif Shehadeh, a Syrian official, called the US claims "lies" and compared them to false accusations that Iraq possessed weapons of mass destruction in the run-up to the US-led invasion of that country.

On the other hand, the Syrian opposition urged the UN Security Council to take immediate steps, possibly even by imposing a no-fly zone.

"Should it find the regime used such weapons, it must act immediately, at least by imposing a no-fly zone," a spokesperson for the Syrian National Coalition said.