Ki-moon assigns scientist to head investigation into using alleged chemical weapon

The UN’s secretary general Ban Ki-moon has appointed Swedish scientist Åke Sellström to head a UN team to investigate the alleged use of chemical weapons.

Ban Ki-moon calls to assign representatives from the Syria’s Security Council allies China and Russia to be part of the investigation team.

Sellström was a chief inspector for a UN team that investigated and dismantled Iraq’s biological and chemical weapons programmers in the 1990s.

In a message sent to the League of Arab States summit in Doha, Qatar, Mr. Ban stresses onthe need of reaching a political solution “while there is still time to avoid Syria’s collapse.”

Ki-Moon states that“The goal is difficult, but clear: to put an end to violence, a clean break with the past, and a transition to a new Syria in which the rights of all communities are protected and the legitimate aspirations of all Syrians for freedom, dignity and justice are met”.