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.
‘Game changer’: 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.
“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,” Obama said at the White House as he began talks with Jordan’s King Abdullah on Friday.
