US Secretary of State John Kerry on Monday called last week’s chemical attack in Syria a “moral obscenity” and said US President Barack Obama believes those who carried it out must be held accountable.
While not explicitly blaming the regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, Kerry nevertheless said the regime kept inspectors away for five days while continuing to shell the area where the attack occurred.
“That is not the behaviour of a government that has nothing to hide,” said Kerry, speaking at the State Department in Washington.
Kerry said the images that came out of Syria in the wake of last week’s attack in the suburbs of Damascus “should shock the conscience of the world” and “defies any code of morality.” He went on to say that President Obama has been in contact with allies and would “be making an informed decision about how to respond to this indiscriminate use of chemical weapons.”
“But make no mistake,” Kerry continued, “President Obama believes there must be accountability for those who would use the world’s most heinous weapons against the world’s most vulnerable people. Nothing today is more serious, and nothing is receiving more serious scrutiny.”
The White House was even more direct in assigning blame for the attack: “There is very little doubt in our minds that the Syrian regime is culpable,” White House Spokesman Jay Carney said on Monday.
Carney said only the regime has maintained control of the stockpile of chemical weapons in Syria.
“They alone have the capacity to use rockets to deliver chemical weapons,” Carney said.
Doubts linked to chemical attack
Also on Monday, British Prime Minister David Cameron told Russian President Vladimir Putin there was “little doubt” that the Syrian government was behind a suspected chemical weapons attack.
In a phone call, Cameron said there was “no evidence” to support the regime’s accusations of the opposition’s hand in the attack.
However, both leaders “reiterated the position agreed by all leaders at the G8 in June: No one should use chemical weapons and any use would merit a serious response from the international community,” a Downing Street spokesman said.
Putin told Cameron there was “no evidence of whether a chemical weapons attack had taken place or who was responsible.” Earlier in the day, UN inspectors came under sniper fire on their way to the site of a suspected chemical weapons attack. The first vehicle of the UN investigators was “deliberately shot at multiple times” by unidentified snipers, the United Nations said.
The government and opposition traded accusations of responsibility for the incident.
Despite the shooting, the inspectors visited Maadamiyet al-Sham, south-west of Damascus and later returned safely to their Damascus hotel. UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said they visited two hospitals, interviewed witnesses, survivors and doctors and collected samples.
Maadamiyat al-Sham is one of two areas that the opposition said the government shelled on Wednesday with munitions containing a poisonous gas, leaving 1,300 people dead. The government has denied the charge.
The international medical charity Medicines Sans Frontieres said three hospitals in Damascus reported about 3,600 patients showed “neurotoxic symptoms” within three hours of the bombardment.
Warnings by western nations
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov hit back at warnings by Western nations that the use of chemical weapons could trigger a military response.
Lavrov urged Washington in a telephone call with Kerry “not to succumb to provocations” but to ensure that UN weapons inspectors could carry out an objective investigation, the Foreign Ministry in Moscow said.
He warned that US intervention in Syria would “annihilate” the joint Russian-American efforts to achieve peace.
“I hear with great concern declarations from London and Paris that NATO could intervene and destroy chemical weapons even without UN Security Council approval,” Lavrov said later.
“This is a very dangerous and slippery path on which our Western partners have already ventured before,” he said ahead of a Kerry’s statement.
Italian Foreign Minister Emma Bonino also urged caution, saying that no strikes should be launched without agreement in the Security Council.
The pushback from Lavrov and Bonino came after French President Francois Hollande said the United States and its allies would decide within days on a response.
“There are several options on the table that range from the reinforcement of international sanctions to airstrikes to arming the rebels,” Hollande told Le Parisien newspaper.
“We will also leave a little time for the diplomatic process, but not too much time,” he said. “We cannot not react to the use of chemical weapons.” In Amman, top Western and Arab military leaders began deliberations reviewing “all options” regarding a response to the alleged attacks, including direct military strikes on Syria.
Late Monday the White House said Obama and Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd spoke about the ongoing violence in Syria. The two leaders expressed their grave concern about the reported use of chemical weapons.
Obama and Rudd discussed possible responses by the international community and agreed to continue to consult closely, according to the White House statement.