The Syrian opposition said they will ensure the safety of UN chemical weapons experts as they pass through rebel-controlled areas, adding that their successful arrival at the site of an alleged gas attack near Damascus within 48 hours was ‘critical.’
“We will ensure the safety of the U.N. team ... It is critical that those inspectors get there within 48 hours,” Khaled Saleh, spokesman for the opposition, told a news conference in Istanbul.
The UN inspectors requested access to Damascus suburbs
“without delays” on Thursday in order to investigate the
alleged use of chemical weapons in attacks in the country.
The statement was made the day after a gas attack was reported by opposition activists in the capital killing anywhere between ‘dozens’ to ‘1,300’, according to conflicting reports.
The Syrian government said on Thursday that it was ready to
engage in “maximum” cooperation with UN experts, according
to Russia’s foreign ministry.
The UN investigative team entered the country last Sunday. Three
weeks ago an agreement was reached with Syrian President Bashar
Assad’s government regarding the three different locations that
were to be examined by the mission.
Around 13 different reports of alleged chemical weapons usage in Syria have been made to the UN, and the sites are being examined in order to determine the responsible parties in the alleged attacks.
Russia provided the UN with an analysis of samples taken from western Aleppo in Khan al-Assal. The district was the site of a chemical weapons attack in March 2013 when 30 people died. Russia’s findings so far have indicated that rebels were behind the incident.
The US has declared that they have their own data suggesting
government forces were responsible for the attack. However, Paulo
Pinheiro, chairman of the UN commission’s inquiry into rights
violations in Syria, said US records did not meet the standards
required by the UN.
According to anonymous US and allied intelligence sources, who
spoke to Reuters, a preliminary assessment indicated that the
alleged act was likely to have had high-level approval from
President Bashar al-Assad's government. However, conclusive proof
is still being sought.
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said on Friday that there will
be “serious consequences” if the reports of chemical
weapons usage turn out to be true.
“Any use of chemical weapons anywhere, by anybody, under any
circumstances, would violate international law,” Ban said at
a scheduled event in the South Korean capital of Seoul on Friday.
“Such a crime against humanity should result in serious
consequences for the perpetrator,” he added.
A spokesperson for Ban told Reuters on Friday that he wants a
“thorough, impartial and prompt investigation” into the alleged
chemical gas attack.
US President Barack Obama stated on Friday that the country
should tread with caution in response to the most recent apparent
attack, as his aides mulled over the prospect of military action
against Syria’s government. In the interview, which was his first
since Wednesday’s strike, he called the reports coming out of the
country “very troublesome” and a “big event of grave
concern.”
Moscow has been continuing to monitor events surrounding the
alleged attack, Russian Foreign Ministry spokesman, Aleksandr
Lukashevich, said in a statement on Friday.
“We’re getting more new evidence that this criminal act was of a
provocative nature,” he stressed. “In particular, there
are reports circulating on the Internet that the materials of the
incident and accusations against government troops had been
posted for several hours before the so-called attack. Thus, it
was a pre-planned action.”