UK, US, France blame Assad forces for UN-confimred gas attacks

Britain, the US and France have rushed to point the finger at Syrian government forces after a United Nations report confirmed the use of sarin nerve agent near the Syrian capital in an attack on August 21.

“On the basis of the evidence obtained during the investigation of the Ghouta incident, the conclusion is that chemical weapons have been used in the ongoing conflict between the parties in the Syrian Arab Republic, also against civilians, including children, on a relatively large scale,” said the report by chief U.N. investigator Ake Sellstrom of Sweden.

The UN investigators’ report does not say who has used the poisonous gas in the five examined locations near Damascus.

However, London, Washington and Paris insist on their long-held accusations that Syrian government forces have used the agent.

British UN ambassador Mark Lyall Grant cited payload and purity of the sarin agent used in the attacks as the evidence behind London’s accusations against the Syrian government.

Lyall Grant said the rocket samples examined had a payload of 350 liters and the “quality of the sarin was superior” to those used by Iraq against Iran in the 1980’s and by terrorists in an attack on a Tokyo subway station in 1995, making it impossible for the foreign-backed militants to hav used them.

“This does not point to a cottage industry chemical” Lyall Grant said.

This is while, the UN has earlier announced that the terrorists have seized all kinds of weapons from military depots across Syria during more than two years of war.

UN Secretary General Ban Ki Moon has not confirmed that the technical details implicate Syrian government forces in the attack, either.

Meanwhile, Russian UN envoy Vitaly Churkin stressed there is no scientific evidence showing government forces were responsible for the incident.

In reaction to the report, British Foreign Secretary William Hague also pointed the finger at the Assad government and called for a UN Security Council resolution to ensure Syria complies with the recent Russia-US agreement on its chemical weapons “in full”.

Under the agreement, Syria should submit a full list of its chemical weapons by the end of the week, put them under international inspectors’ watch by November, and destroy or ship out the stockpile by mid-2014.