Report: Germany gave Syria ingredients for deadly gas in 2011

The export included 270 tons of sodium fluoride,hydrofluoric acid and ammonium hydrogen fluoride used in creating sarin gas..”

Chemical materials and gas masks are pictured in a
warehouse at the front line of clashes in Syria. 

German companies supplied Syria’s regime with dual-usage chemicals, which can be applied for military and civilian use, as late as 2011.

The chemicals involved – sodium fluoride, hydrofluoric acid and ammonium hydrogen fluoride – can be used to manufacture sarin, the deadly nerve gas used during the August 21 attack on the edge of Damascus, which killed more than 1,400 people, according to the US government.

The firms delivered larger volumes of these chemicals than previously disclosed in September, German broadcaster ARD reported last week.

A week before Chancellor Angela Merkel’s September 22 election victory, a Left Party deputy revealed that German companies, under successive coalition governments between 1998 and 2006, supplied Syria with chemicals.

Merkel told ARD television before her election victory, “We are of course looking into all allegations on this, but from what we can see so far the export license was for civil use.”

According to the new ARD report, German companies delivered roughly 350 tons of dual-use chemicals to Syrian President Bashar Assad’s regime between 1998 and 2011. The previous known total of Germansold chemicals to Syria was 135 tons between 2002 and 2006.

The exports included 270 tons of fluoride, which is key in the manufacture of sarin.

Under the European Union’s legal framework, the chemicals sold to Syria were designated as dual-use goods. Germany’s export agency BAFA has a liberal permit policy and has been criticized over the years for failing to clamp down on dual-use goods sold to Iran.

The German government said two weeks ago that there was no data bank or control mechanisms available to check on a regular basis the end use of the dual-use deliveries.

Meanwhile, Israel’s ambassador to Bulgaria, Shaul Kamisa-Raz, urged the EU to help Bulgaria absorb the flow of Syrian refugees into the southeastern European country, the Sofia news agency and the BGNES news agency reported on Saturday. “Some of the refugees may integrate in the Bulgarian society, but this will be a very difficult task for the government,” Kamisa-Raz said.

BGNES quoted Kamisa-Raz saying, “Our nation and our government are sympathetic to the suffering of millions of Syrians, and especially to the over 2 million refugees who moved to various places around the world.”

Referring to treatment of injured Syrians in Israel hospitals, the ambassador continued, “There is an open door on our border for the Syrians who are wounded and seeking shelter

Reuters

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BBC regular Atwan’s week: speech at Hamas-linked conference, interview on Hizballah TV

Here is a picture of regular BBC guest commentator Abdel Bari Atwan taken last weekend.

Atwan gave a keynote speech at an ‘International Conference on the Oslo Accords’ held at the Palestinian Return Centre in London on September 7^th and 8^th 2013.

The Palestinian Return Centre is a known Hamas front which is proscribed by Israel. Readers can find out more about the ‘academic’ conference and its speakers here.

On September 10^th Atwan was to be found appearing on Hizballah’s Al Manar TV, opposing international attempts to contain chemical weapons already used to kill hundreds of Syrian citizens.

“The loss of the Syrian chemical weapons will be a loss to the entire Arab nation, because these weapons are the poor man’s nuclear bomb. These weapons create some, if not complete, deterrence vis-à-vis Israel, which possesses a huge chemical and nuclear arsenal.”

Yes – this is a man the BBC considers it appropriate to invite regularly to its studios in order to provide BBC audiences with comment and analysis on the Middle East.

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UN probe: 8 massacres by Syria regime, 1 by rebels

 And the world sits back & watches.

GENEVA - Evidence confirms at least eight massacres have been perpetrated in Syria by President Bashar Assad's regime and supporters and one by rebels over the past year and a half, a UN commission said Wednesday.

Calling Syria a battlefield where armed forces are getting away with large-scale murder, the UN commission investigating human rights abuses in Syria said that in each of the incidents since April 2012 "the intentional mass killing and identity of the perpetrator were confirmed to the commission's evidentiary standards."

Its latest report Wednesday also notes that the four-member commission is probing nine more suspected mass killings since March. With those, it said, the illegal killing was confirmed but the perpetrator could not yet be identified. In other cases, it said, the circumstances of the killing were not sufficiently clear to be able to determine the legality.

"Relentless shelling has killed thousands of civilians and displaced the populations of entire towns. Massacres and other unlawful killings are perpetrated with impunity," the commission concludes. "An untold number of men, children and women have disappeared. Many are killed in detention; survivors live with physical and mental scars of torture. Hospitals and schools have been bombarded."

The report updates the commission's work since 2011 to mid-July, stopping short of what the United States says was an Aug. 21 chemical weapons attack on rebel-held areas that killed hundreds of civilians. Since the commission has not yet been given permission to carry out its work in Syria, the information in the latest report was based on interviews conducted in the region and from Geneva, including via Skype and telephone.

The commission said it has carried out 2,091 interviews since September 2011. Most of the information is coming from the 2 million Syrian refugees streaming across the borders into neighboring countries.

The commission created by the UN's 47-nation Human Rights Council says both sides have committed heinous war crimes during the 2 ½-year conflict that has killed over 100,000 people. The council is due to take up the report and the commission plans to hold a news conference next week.

In a statement accompanying the report, the commission chaired by Brazilian diplomat and scholar Paulo Sergio Pinheiro said most casualties result from unlawful attacks using conventional weapons and any response to end the conflict "must be founded upon the protection of civilians."


The Times of Israel

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Historians will mock Obama

Op-ed:

 US leader wasted time and energy on forming unneeded western coalition, as if Syria crisis was world war three

President Barack Obama won't get any medals of honor for his handling of the Syrian crisis. Even if he eventually orders a military strike on the Assad regime, historians will mock him.

They will write that in 2012 he set a red line for Syria, which was crossed in 2013, but he made every effort to shirk his obligation.They will write that he organized a limited attack and prayed until the very last minute that it will be rendered unnecessary. His body language projected determination, but his actions projected weakness.

There was no military or constitutional barrier which prevented Obama from striking Syria over a week ago, when the world was still under the impression of the horrible images from the chemical attack on rebel-strongholds near Damascus. US warships in the Mediterranean have at any given moment enough Tomahawk missiles to carry out such a simple mission. There is no shortage of targets either. Two or three salvos would have made it clear to all the crazies of the Middle East that the US keeps its word.

But for Obama, even this bare minimum was too much. He wasted time and energy on forming an unnecessary western coalition, as if this was world war three. Instead of calling IDF chief Benny Gantz and asking for his advice on how to bomb Syria without the scrutiny of the High Court and B'Tselem, the White House phoned everyone else in the world to seek approval for a strike. The largest superpower in the world became small-minded.

According to most reports, Obama was not furious when the parliament in London voted against an attack. In fact, he breathed a sigh of relief. The British refusal gave him the inspiration for the ploy - taking the decision on a strike in Syria to Congress.

Obama purposely complicated the situation to gain another two to three week window which he hopes will present him with an opportunity to avoid a military operation against Assad. He hopes that during this time a compromise offer will surface or that some event will distract the world from the situation in Syria. Who knows, maybe the Israeli government will suddenly decide to build seven and a half apartments in east Jerusalem? Then even the neutral Brits will vote enthusiastically in favor of a strike.

Arutz 7

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Israel missile test amid fear of Syria escalation

Israel has carried out a joint missile test with the US in the Mediterranean, amid heightened tension over possible Western military strikes on Syria.

The test came as the US Congress prepared for its first public hearing on a possible military response to alleged chemical weapons use by Syria.

'Clear signal'

A senior Israeli defence official confirmed to the BBC that a missile had been fired on Tuesday to test its defence systems.

The defence ministry said Israel's Arrow missile defence system had successfully detected and tracked a Sparrow medium-range guided missile fired as part of the test.

The BBC's Richard Galpin in Jerusalem says tests like this are usually planned long in advance.

But he says it is still a sign that Israel is taking very seriously the possibility that any US air strikes could lead to retaliatory attacks on Israel - either by Syria itself or by its ally, the Shia militia Hezbollah in Lebanon.

Keep Israel Out Of It.

The surprising saga of Barack Obama and Chemical Bashar continues with new twists and turns. First the President threatened, practically promised, a punitive (although strategically insignificant) missile strike in a matter of days, and then his people leaked precisely what it would be like in shocking, unprecedented detail — permitting Assad to vacate likely targets.

Israel placed its armed forces on alert, after threats from Iran, Syria and Hizballah, although — thanks to Israel’s credible promise of disproportionate response to any provocations — retaliation against it was considered unlikely. Israelis queued for gas masks and possibly even cleared the junk out of some bomb shelters.

Then the British Parliament embarrassed its PM by refusing to authorize the use of force against Syria. And the next day, Obama announced that he had decided to ask for the approval of Congress before taking action — and Congress is away on vacation until September 9.

How unfair! I can imagine the Syrians worrying about whether they ought to move their missiles back to their usual places, while Israelis stuff all the old baby strollers and lawn furniture back into their bomb shelters.

I have been watching the extended display of Western weakness and indecision, along with the unusual spectacle of Obama supporters calling for military action (at least, as long as he was) with interest.

It should be clear that — like most of the unrest in the Middle East today — the Syrian conflict has nothing to do with Israel, unless someone gets really stupid. Israel has done its best to remain neutral except insofar as it has acted to prevent the transfer of game-changing weapons to Hizballah.

But it seems to be just too tempting for some to resist trying to make Israel part of it in one way or another. For example, here is a piece of NPR’s morning newscast today, during which Hamlet Obama’s latest non-action is analyzed (my transcription):

Mara Liasson: What happened was the President changed his mind. He saw what happened in Great Britain, he knew he wasn’t getting the support of the United Nations Security Council, and, uh, although the White House insists they don’t need congressional approval to act, they are not legally required to get it, he felt that going to Congress would put any military action on a much stronger footing. It would also be consistent with the position that he’s taken all along, in favor of presidents going to Congress first. And especially with a public that’s deeply ambivalent about military action, he decided that a full debate with the people’s representatives was the best way to go. … 

Wade Goodwyn: Will he get any support from Congress?

ML: Well, that’s the big question. If the vote was held right now I think the answer would be ‘no’, he’d lose. That’s what makes this such a hugely risky move on the President’s part, because a failure would weaken him immensely, the way it has for Prime Minister Cameron. But lots of members of Congress reacted favorably, as you said, to the decision to come to them, you know 200 of them had signed a letter demanding that he do so. But there are still many Republicans, especially in the House, who won’t approve of anythingthe President wants to do, and there are many Democrats who are against military action. And even in the Senate, where support for the President’s position is considered stronger, there are lawmakers like Lindsay Graham and John McCain who say they will vote ‘no’ because the tailored, limited, shot-across-the-bow type of military action that the President is describing won’t be effective. 

So the public, as I said, is deeply ambivalent — for many members it is a lot tougher to vote ‘yes’ on this than ‘no’ — and the President is going to have to spend the next week or two working this very hard, and enlisting allies like Israel to help him sway members. [my emphasis]

Oh, please. Don’t drag Israel (and certainly not the ‘Israel Lobby’) into this! Except insofar as she has to be prepared to deter opportunistic attacks, Israel could not care less whether Obama bombs some empty buildings to ‘teach Assad a lesson’. Whatever Obama does or does not do will be — or should be — based on his perception of US interests.

It is not Israel’s job to “help sway members” of Congress. Israel is not responsible for the barbaric behavior of Assad or his opponents, it is not responsible for anything that Obama does, and will not be responsible for anything that Assad and his allies may do to the US in return.

Maybe I’m paranoid, but I smell an attempt to position Israel to take the blame if something goes wrong with this already highly problematic exercise.

http://fresnozionism.org/2013/09/keep-israel-out-of-it/

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Revealed: Britain sold nerve gas chemicals to Syria 10 months after war began

British government has blood on its hands

FURIOUS politicians have demanded Prime Minister David Cameron explain why chemical export licences were granted to firms last January – 10 months after the Syrian uprising began.

BRITAIN allowed firms to sell chemicals to Syria capable of being used to make nerve gas, the Sunday Mail can reveal today.

Export licences for potassium fluoride and sodium fluoride were granted months after the bloody civil war in the Middle East began.

The chemical is capable of being used to make weapons such as sarin, thought to be the nerve gas used in the attack on a rebel-held Damascus suburb which killed nearly 1500 people, including 426 children, 10 days ago.

President Bashar Assad’s forces have been blamed for the attack, leading to calls for an armed response from the West.

British MPs voted against joining America in a strike. But last night, President Barack Obama said he will seek the approval of Congress to take military action.

The chemical export licences were granted by Business Secretary Vince Cable’s Department for Business, Innovation and Skills last January – 10 months after the Syrian uprising began.

They were only revoked six months later, when the European Union imposed tough sanctions on Assad’s regime.

Yesterday, politicians and anti-arms trade campaigners urged Prime Minister David Cameron to explain why the licences were granted.

Dunfermline and West Fife Labour MP Thomas Docherty, who sits on the House of Commons’ Committees on Arms Export Controls, plans to lodge Parliamentary questions tomorrow and write to Cable.

He said: “At best it has been negligent and at worst reckless to export material that could have been used to create chemical weapons.

“MPs will be horrified and furious that the UK Government has been allowing the sale of these ingredients to Syria.

“What the hell were they doing granting a licence in the first place?

“I would like to know what investigations have been carried out to establish if any of this
material exported to Syria was subsequently used in the attacks on its own people.”

The SNP’s leader at Westminster, Angus Robertson MP, said: “I will be raising this in Parliament as soon as possible to find out what examination the UK Government made of where these chemicals were going and what they were to be used for.

“Approving the sale of chemicals which can be converted into lethal weapons during a civil war is a very serious issue.

“We need to know who these chemicals were sold to, why they were sold, and whether the UK Government were aware that the chemicals could potentially be used for chemical weapons.

“The ongoing humanitarian crisis in Syria makes a full explanation around these shady deals even more important.”

Mark Bitel of the Campaign Against Arms Trade (Scotland) said: “The UK Government claims to have an ethical policy on arms exports, but when it comes down to practice the reality is very different.

“The Government is hypocritical to talk about chemical weapons if it’s granting licences to companies to export to regimes such as Syria.

“We saw David Cameron, in the wake of the Arab Spring, rushing off to the Middle East with arms companies to promote business.”

Some details emerged in July of the UK’s sale of the chemicals to Syria but the crucial dates of the exports were withheld.

The Government have refused to identify the licence holders or say whether the licences were issued to one or two companies.

The chemicals are in powder form and highly toxic. The licences specified that they should be used for making aluminium structures such as window frames.
Professor Alastair Hay, an expert in environmental toxicology at Leeds University, said: “They have a variety of industrial uses.

“But when you’re making a nerve agent, you attach a fluoride element and that’s what gives it
its toxic properties.

“Fluoride is key to making these munitions.

“Whether these elements were used by Syria to make nerve agents is something only subsequent investigation will reveal.”

The Department for Business, Innovation and Skills said: “The UK Government operates one of the most rigorous arms export control regimes in the world.

“An export licence would not be granted where we assess there is a clear risk the goods might be used for internal repression, provoke or prolong conflict within a country, be used aggressively against another country or risk our national security.
“When circumstances change or new information comes to light, we can – and do – revoke licences where the proposed export is no longer consistent with the criteria.”
Assad’s regime have denied blame for the nerve gas attack, saying the accusations are “full of lies”. They have pointed the finger at rebels.

UN weapons inspectors investigating the atrocity left Damascus just before dawn yesterday and crossed into Lebanon after gathering evidence for four days.

They are now travelling to the Dutch HQ of the Organisation for the Prevention of Chemical Weapons.

It could take up to two weeks for the results of tests on samples taken from victims of the attack, as well as from water, soil and shrapnel, to be revealed.

On Thursday night, Cameron referred to a Joint Intelligence Committee report on Assad’s use of chemical weapons as he tried in vain to persuade MPs to back military action. The report said the regime had used chemical weapons at least 14 times since last year.

Russian president Vladimir Putin yesterday attacked America’s stance and urged Obama to show evidence to the UN that Assad’s regime was guilty.

Russia and Iran are Syria’s staunchest allies. The Russians have given arms and military backing to Assad during the civil war which has claimed more than 100,000 lives.

Putin said it would be “utter nonsense” for Syria to provoke opponents and spark military
retaliation from the West by using chemical weapons.

But the White House, backed by the French government, remain convinced of Assad’s guilt, and Obama proposes “limited, narrow” military action to punish the regime.

He has the power to order a strike, but last night said he would seek approval from Congress.
Obama called the chemical attack “an assault on human dignity” and said: “We are prepared to strike whenever we choose.”

He added: “Our capacity to execute this mission is not time-sensitive. It will be effective tomorrow, or next week, or one month from now.

“And I’m prepared to give that order.”

Some fear an attack on Syria will spark retaliation against US allies in the region, such
as Jordan, Turkey and Israel.





Source
Daily Record & Sunday Mail

ISRAEL NEEDS OUR HELP - Listen in the US, UK and Europe

 

 

After watching this attached news item just listen in people - whether you Brits & Americans want to hear the truth or not we're telling it!

 

This blog is proud to be pro-Israel and we are proud to be a voice of Israel.

 

We feel we owe it to Israel that the West and mainly the US and UK assists Israel in their hour of need.

 

Before any of you say - 'why should we help Israel' remember this, and let it sink in!

 

ISRAEL was created in 1948 as a nation, despite it legally & historically and morally being the Jewish land from before even the term Britain came into being and America was discovered. Since 1948, whether you want to admit it or not, Israel has been fighting the same war as us, long long before it came to the British or US shores. If Israel hadn't been fighting this war it would have come to those shores decades before.

 

With the help of Hitler the islamist attack did come to us due to thousands of Muslim volunteers for the Nazi SS that joined the forces of Hitler. But thankfully WE won the war and that victory held off that evil for a while at least.

 

Since 1948 Israel has paid the price in thousands of lives, soldiers, civilians and even babies horrifically murdered in a way similar to the soldier recently butchered on a British street. Israel's economy has been stretched to the limit in paying the economic cost, despite the aid it gets, which is reality, whether it be from the US, UK or Europe, is minimal compared to the real cost of fighting all of our enemies.

 

In 2001 Israel sent advisors to Afghanistan to aid British and US troops in the new kind of warfare we are now fighting. Thousands of lives, British and American have been saved due to this - that is official from Col Richard Kemp who was in charge of British forces in afghan at the time.

 

Israel didn't have to help, but they felt they should help their allies. All they now need in return is our help, support and to know that we, their allies will stand by them as they are at risk from attack. But what do they hear from London and Washington - Betrayal, cowardess appeasing to our enemies and shirking! Shameful, disgusting and a fucking down right shame and it makes me ashamed to be British.

 

If only the majority of the British and American people & more so leaders had the same sized balls of our soldiers!

IDF intercepted Syrian regime chatter on chemical attack as Israel US &UK prepare their forces for the coming conflict

Real-time Israeli intelligence confirmed Assad behind horrific assault last week it has been reported. 

An IDF intelligence unit listened in on senior Syrian officials discussing a chemical attack that allegedly took place on the outskirts of Damascus and left hundreds of Syrian civilians dead last Wednesday, a major western publication reported.

According to the report Saturday in Focus magazine, a squad specializing in wire-tapping within the IDF’s prestigious 8200 intelligence unit intercepted a conversation between high-ranking regime officials regarding the use of chemical agents at the time of the attack.

 

The report said the intercepted conversation proved that Bashar Assad’s regime was responsible for the use of nonconventional weapons.

Meanwhile British Prime minister David Cameron has cut short his Cornwall holiday to chair a Syria crisis meeting as Britain and the U.S. prepare to launch missile strikes.

Rebel groups claimed that in Wednesday’s attack as many as 1,300 people were killed in the eastern suburbs of Damascus. The reports were accompanied by a string of grisly photos and videos depicting scores of dead civilians, including children.

 

An Israeli TV report on Saturday claimed that the missiles were fired by the 155th Brigade of the 4th Armored Division of the Syrian Army, a division under the command of the Syrian president’s brother, Maher Assad.

The nerve gas shells were fired from a military base in a mountain range to the west of Damascus, the Channel 2 report said.

 

The embattled regime has concentrated its vast stocks of chemical weaponry in just two or three locations, the TV report continued, under the control of Syrian Air Force Intelligence, itself reporting to the president.

 

The TV report further added that “the assessment in Israel” is that the attack was intended to serve as the possible start of a wider operation.

 

On Sunday, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that the situation in Syria couldn’t be allowed to continue.

 

Netanyahu said that Israel “will always know how to protect [its] citizens” should Syrian weapons be turned on the Jewish state and the IDF is preparing itself daily to meet the threat.

 

“Our hand is always on the pulse,” he said. “Our finger is a responsible one and if needed, is on the trigger. We will always know how to protect our citizens and our country against those who come to injure us or try to attack us.”

Speaking ahead of the weekly cabinet meeting, Netanyahu said that reports of the mass chemical weapons attack outside Damascus point to “a terrible tragedy and a terrible crime.”

 

“Our hearts go out to the women, children, babies and civilians injured so cruelly by the use of weapons of mass destruction,” the prime minister said.

 

In Syria  snipers have reportedly shot at UN weapon inspectors heading to the site where more than 300 people died in a suspected chemical weapons attacks last Wednesday.

The convoy was forced to turn back and one vehicle was no longer usable after being 'deliberately shot at multiple times'.

 

A UN spokesman said: 'The first vehicle of the Chemical Weapons Investigation Team was deliberately shot at multiple times by unidentified snipers in the buffer zone area.'

Israel, like the rest of the world, has refrained from responding to the Syrian crisis in any large-scale way, taking in only a small number of injured Syrians and reportedly carrying out covert air strikes at regime weapons sites. Yet officials have said action must be taken, with most expecting Washington to respond to the attack.

Sources - Times of Israel & Mail online 

Ain Tarma where 1,300 innocent Syrians were gassed in their beds - but the anti-Israel 'human rights' activists are silent about this - no word from BDS on this!

Deliberate murder - and BDS has nothing to say on this

Bodies are still being discovered after an alleged chemical weapons attack on the outskirts of Damascus that killed hundreds of people and the death toll will rise, a Syrian opposition spokesman said today.

The opposition accused government forces of gassing hundreds of people on Wednesday by firing rockets that released deadly fumes over rebel-held Damascus suburbs, killing men, women and children as they slept.
'We expect the number (of dead) to grow because we just discovered a neighbourhood in Zamalka where there are houses full of dead people,' Syrian National Coalition spokesman Khaled Saleh said in Istanbul, where the opposition has held regular meetings throughout the conflict.

Decomposing bodies

Fahad Almasri, spokesman for the rebel Free Syria Army in Paris, said its branch in Damascus had documented 1,729 deaths following Wednesday's attack. He added that 6,000 people were also suffering from breathing problems.
As innocent civilians recuperated in hospital, President Bashar Assad's forces - who are accused of being behind the chemical attacks - are said to be pressing on with their offensive in the rebel-held eastern Damascus suburbs.
The opposition said Assad's forces fired rockets that released deadly fumes over rebel-held eastern Damascus suburbs, which are part of what is known as the Ghouta.
The area is an expanse of old farmland dotted with large built up areas inhabited mostly by members of Syria's Sunni Muslim majority that have been at the forefront of the uprising against Assad's Alawite rule.
The government has denied the 'absolutely baseless' allegations that it used chemical weapons in artillery barrages there yesterday.

The attack will again test President Obama's warning in 2012 to Syria that using chemical weapons would be crossing a 'red line' - but a White House representative refused to give a definitive answer about whether this attack would prompt action from America.

But even the most conservative tally would make it the deadliest alleged chemical attack in
Syria's civil war and the world's most lethal chemical weapons attack since the 1980s.
As governments discussed a potential plan of action, activists said Assad's forces were firing rockets from multiple launchers and heavy mortar rounds on the neighbourhoods of Jobar and Zamalka, which are on the eastern outskirts of the capital.


Mass graves have become a norma sight in
Islamic hell-holes

Rockets also hit the nearby district of Qaboun to the north, where rebel fighters have repelled attempts by loyalist forces to overrun the area, and the Yarmouk Palestinian refugee camp area to the south, the activists added.

Speaking from Ghouta, activist Khaled Amer said explosions from rockets hitting Zamalka were being heard.
In Jobar, a Damascus neighbourhood only two miles) from the historic centre of the ancient capital, explosions were heard at an army fortification and another compound housing tanks, apparently from a rebel attack on the facilities.
Fadi al-Shami of the Tarhrir al-Sham Brigade, which operates in the eastern Ghouta region, said scattered fighting was taking place along the Jobar-Zamalka axis and that opposition forces have moved closer to loyalist lines, partly to be in safer positions in case of another chemical attack.
But despite Syrian officials' denials about the attack, the U.S., Britain and France have demanded that a team of U.N. experts, who are already in the country to investigate previous alleged attacks, be granted immediate access to investigate the site.
The U.N security council did not explicitly demand a U.N. investigation of the incident, although it said 'clarity' was needed and welcomed U.N. chief Ban Ki-moon's calls for a prompt investigation by a U.N. inspection team.
The council's statement was watered down to accommodate objections from Russia and China, diplomats said. Moscow and Beijing have vetoed previous Western efforts to impose U.N. penalties on Assad.
It would appear that many rebels and activists in the opposition area say they had lost interest in U.N. investigations or help from Western powers abroad. Some say the rebels should take matters into their own hands and retaliate.
'The families of Ghouta have lost hope in any investigation committees, which have offered us no relief since the revolution began two years ago... We are 7 kilometres away, just a 5 minute car ride from were they are staying.
'We're being exterminated with poison gas while they drink their coffee and sit inside their hotels,' said activist Bara Abdelraman.
'As leaders of the activists and opposition, of course we still call for the entrance of investigators and vow to protect them, as it is a responsibility before God to do everything we can for our people who are being massacred.'
The government forces alleged continued bombardment of the ring of rebel-held suburbs around the capital, known as the Ghouta region will further hinder U.N. investigators from entering the area, only a few kilometres from where the team's Damascus hotel, activists claimed.
'We are asking for this team to go directly, with complete freedom... to the site of the crimes which took place yesterday,' George Sabra, a prominent member of the umbrella opposition's National Coalition.
He said the U.N. Security Council should amend the mission of the team, tasked with investigating a few sites of previous alleged chemical attacks, to give it the right to visit any site.
'But we are doubtful because the mission of these experts is constrained by the Syrian regime, limited to a few areas which it will take them to,' he said.
Syrian National Coalition spokesman Khaled Saleh warned there would be limited time to inspect the scene: 'There is a time limit for when the inspectors can prove with high probability that chemical weapons were used. We are saying let the inspectors go in either today, or tomorrow at the most.
'Politics is knocking on closed doors and we understand that the U.N. is one of those closed doors for us," he said. "We will continue pursuing a political solution but at the same time that does not stop us from pursuing other alternatives.'

France said today that the international community would need to respond with force if allegations that the Syrian government was responsible for a chemical attack on civilians proved true.

'There would have to be reaction with force in Syria from the international community, but there is no question of sending troops on the ground,' Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius told French television network BFM.

If the U.N. Security Council could not make a decision, one would have to be taken 'in other ways,' he said, without elaborating.

The attack highlighted the sense of impunity within Assad's government, he said.
Fabius said that if Assad refused to let the U.N. inspection team investigate the site, he would have been caught with 'his hand in the till.'

Fabius, who had a working dinner with Foreign Secretary William Hague in Paris last night to discuss Syria, said the alleged attack had come almost exactly a year after U.S. President Barack Obama warned that the use of chemical weapons in Syria would be a red line.

It remains unclear whether this latest attack will bring about action from the U.S., as yesterday Principal Deputy Press Secretary Josh Earnest avoided a definitive answer about America's next move in a briefing with journalists.

When reporters pressed Earnest on whether President Obama is 'willing to use the stick along with the rhetoric' on Syria, he quipped that it was 'a philosophical question which I think is a legitimate one.
'It might be better answered by the Commander-in-Chief himself.'
Earnest insisted that a UN inspection team, which has been on the ground in Syria since Tuesday, should be allowed to investigate the sites of alleged chemical weapons use before the U.S. or any other country mounts an organized response.
'We think it's important for that investigative team to be given access to that area,' he said.
He would not comment, however, on whether or not a 'red line' would be crossed if the Assad government interferes with that investigation or refuses to grant the UN team access to critical sites, including those shown in videos that circulated online Wednesday.

 

 

 

 Source  Mail online

Israel, US, Mull Raids on '18 Chemical Targets' in Syria

F-15

TIME: Israeli and U.S. militaries may target Assad’s arsenal of unconventional weapons together.

Israeli and U.S. military officials are coordinating how to target and destroy Syrian president Bashar Assad’s arsenal of unconventional weapons under assorted scenarios, Israeli military and intelligence officials told TIME Magazine.

One scenario would be the sudden removal of Assad from the scene, the magazine said. “That would prompt the allies to launch operations on the estimated 18 depots and other sites where WMDs are stored,” Israei military and intelligence officials said.

“Search and destroy operations would also be launched if the weapons appeared to be about to fall into the hands of the rebels, which include Islamist extremists aligned with al-Qaeda.”

The Israeli officials emphasized, according to the magazine, that it has not been decided whether Israeli and U.S. forces would act together, and how the work would be divided between them if they did cooperate. “But the U.S. plans called for deploying forces on the ground as well as waves of airstrikes, to assure that the chemical and biological components are neutralized, according to the Israeli officials.”

“The main arms of concern to us are the arms that are already in Syria — these are anti-aircraft weapons, these are chemical weapons and other very, very dangerous weapons that could be game changers,” Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu told the BBC in April. “They will change the conditions, the balance of power in the Middle East. They could present a terrorist threat on a worldwide scale. It is definitely our interest to defend ourselves, but we also think it is in the interest of other countries.”

related -

Hizballah units near Golan. Some receive “limited-use” chemical arms

source