Syria agrees to let UN inspectors visit site of 'chemical weapon' atrocity

 
A relative weeps over the body of one of his family in eastern Ghouta earlier in the week
Getty
Reuters|Staff25 August 2013

The United Nations said its chemical weapons experts will visit the site of an alleged poison gas attack in Syria tomorrow.

Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon's office said in a statement that Syria had promised to observe a ceasefire at the site in the suburbs of Damascus while a UN team begins "on-site fact-finding activities".

Agreement: Syrian Deputy Prime Minister Walid al-Moallem with a Angela Kane, the UN high representative for disarmament, in Damascus
AFP/Getty

The UN experts arrived in Damascus three days before a mass poisoning killed many hundreds of people on Wednesday in what appears to have been the world's worst chemical weapons attack in 25 years.

The Syrian Foreign Ministry said in a statement: "The Syrian government and the United Nations agreed on a common understanding ... to allow the United Nations to investigate allegations of chemical weapons use in the Damascus suburbs on Aug 22, 2013."

Syria has denied that it was to blame for the attack, in which 350 people died, many of them children.

Syrian Foreign Minister Walid al-Moualem met UN High Representative for Disarmament Affairs Angela Kane - who was in Damascus to negotiate access - on Sunday morning, it said.

However the US said the decision to allow inspectors into the site was "too late to be credible". An official said the evidence had been "significantly corrupted as a result of the regime's persistent shelling and other intentional actions over the last five days."

The news came as the US said it now has little doubt the Syrian government was responsible for the chemical weapons attack.

President Barack Obama is deciding how to respond, a senior official said.

"Based on the reported number of victims, reported symptoms of those who were killed or injured, witness accounts, and other facts gathered by open sources, the US intelligence community, and international partners, there is very little doubt at this point that a chemical weapon was used by the Syrian regime against civilians in this incident," the official told Reuters.

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Earlier Prime Minister David Cameron and Mr Obama pledged a "serious response" if it could be proved that the regime used chemical weapons.

Mr Cameron and Mr Obama discussed the crisis by telephone last night and have ordered officials to examine "all options".

Medecins Sans Frontieres said hospitals it supports in Syria treated some 3,600 patients with "neurotoxic symptoms", 355 of whom died, many of them children.

It said the patients had arrived in three hospitals in the Damascus area on Wednesday. Staff described people suffering from convulsions, extreme salivation, contracted pupils and sight and respiratory problems. However, the organisation stressed it could not "scientifically confirm" the use of chemical weapons.

A Downing Street spokesman said: "They are both gravely concerned by the attack that took place in Damascus on Wednesday and the increasing signs that this was a significant chemical weapons attack carried out by the Syrian regime against its own people.

"The UN Security Council has called for immediate access for UN investigators on the ground in Damascus. The fact that President Assad has failed to co-operate with the UN suggests that the regime has something to hide.

"They reiterated that significant use of chemical weapons would merit a serious response from the international community and both have tasked officials to examine all the options.

"They agreed that it is vital that the world upholds the prohibition on the use of chemical weapons and deters further outrages. They agreed to keep in close contact on the issue."

The talks came as the Pentagon moved naval forces closer to Syria in case Mr Obama decides to order military strikes.

US Defence Secretary Chuck Hagel, speaking to reporters aboard his military aircraft en route from Hawaii to Malaysia, declined to discuss any specific force movements.

He said Mr Obama has asked the Pentagon to provide military options in light of reports that the Syrian government used chemical weapons against civilians.

Mr Hagel said the US will coordinate with the international community in deciding whether such an attack was carried out.

And he said it is important to make a decision swiftly because of the possibility that the Syrian government could be readying further chemical attacks.

Mr Obama previously suggested that the use of chemical weapons in Syria would be a "gamechanger".

But he has stopped short of committing to direct intervention - a step that would risk inflaming tensions with Russia.

Mr Cameron would also face domestic resistance to military action, with Tory MPs already having insisted there should be a Commons vote before arms are supplied to rebels.

However, there is speculation that the US, Britain and France could back limited airstrikes to demonstrate that deployment of chemical weapons will not be tolerated.

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