Thread: Syrian government behind 'massive chemical attack' BBC

2 September 2013 Last updated at 14:23 ET

Syrian government behind 'massive chemical attack'

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  Syrian opposition forces say they're not convinced the US will launch an attack against President Assad
  
  
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France says the suspected chemical attack near Damascus last month "could not have been ordered and carried out by anyone but the Syrian government".

A report presented to parliament by Prime Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault said the assault on 21 August involved the "massive use of chemical agents".

It concluded that at least 281 deaths could be attributed to the attack.
France and the US are pushing for punitive military action, which the UK parliament rejected last week.

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has again denied being behind the attack.
In an interview with French newspaper Le Figaro, he said it would have been "illogical".

Jeremy Bowen BBC Middle East editor, Damascus

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I think people I've spoken to within the Syrian regime quite like being eyeball-to-eyeball with the US. I think they believe President Obama is bent on attacking Syria, in fact that's what they say quite openly.

So while they describe the US decision to refer it to a vote in Congress as wisdom, they say it should also go back to the UN and that any action would be illegal if it didn't get UN authorisation.

Since the Russians have said very openly in the Security Council that they wouldn't vote to authorise anything like this, and President Obama has said he's very comfortable going ahead without a Security Council resolution, that means in a sense, in the eyes of the Syrian regime, the battle lines are now drawn, and they are trying to get themselves ready for whatever happens.

• Damascus ponders looming US attack
• In pictures: Tension in Syria

He also warned that foreign military action could ignite a wider regional conflict.
"Everyone will lose control of the situation when the powder keg explodes. Chaos and extremism will spread", he said.
Mr Assad also warned France that there would be "repercussions" from any involvement in Syria.
Vote pressure The alleged chemical attack took place in the Ghouta, an agricultural belt around the capital on 21 August. The US put the death toll at 1,429, including 426 children.
The US administration has already presented its case that the Assad regime was behind the attack. On Monday Mr Ayrault presented France's own intelligence dossier to parliamentary leaders.
The nine-page report drawn up by France's military and foreign intelligence services states: "Analysis of the information we have today leads us to conclude that, on 21 August 2013, the Syrian regime launched an attack on certain districts on the outskirts of Damascus held by opposition units that combined conventional means and massive use of chemical agents."



Syria's deputy foreign minister said terrorism will flourish everywhere if Syria is attacked

French MPs are due to debate the issue in an extraordinary session of parliament on Wednesday.
However, Mr Ayrault has ruled out a vote, as happened in the UK and is scheduled to take place in the US after 9 September.
President Francois Hollande is constitutionally able to order an attack without parliamentary approval.
US lawmakers are due to reconvene next week, and White House officials have said that when it comes to a vote, they believe there will be enough support for the president.
US Secretary of State John Kerry said on Sunday samples from hair and blood gathered after the 21 August attack had tested positive for "signatures of sarin", and that he was confident Congress would give its approval for strikes, "because they understand the stakes".
However some lawmakers have expressed doubts about President Barack Obama's plan for a "limited, narrow" military operation, questioning its purpose and effectiveness.

Mark Mardell North America editor

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• Read more from Mark

By putting off an attack and seeking congressional approval, President Obama has taken the biggest gamble of his presidency, says the BBC's North America editor Mark Mardell.
Nato Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen has said he is personally convinced that a chemical attack took place and that the Assad government was responsible.
There must be "a firm international response" to deter any future use of such weapons, he said, or else it would send a "dangerous signal to dictators all over the world".
But he added that he did not envisage any further role for Nato, saying he would expect any military response to be "a very short, measured, targeted operation" and that the alliance's resources would not be needed.
'Support for Islamists' Meanwhile fighting has continued across Syria, in a conflict which has already left an estimated 100,000 people dead since 2011.
On Monday, activists said 20 rebel fighters were killed in an army ambush in Adra, north-east of Damascus, AFP news agency reports.
In other developments:

• A BBC poll shows about three-quarters of the British public believe MPs were right to reject UK military action in Syria in a vote last week
• UK Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg said parliament will not vote again if stronger evidence of a state chemical attack emerges
• Russia's Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov says the US intelligence blaming Damascus is "absolutely unconvincing"

On Sunday, Syrian Deputy Foreign Minister Faisal Mekdad told the BBC's Jeremy Bowen in Damascus that any attack against Syria would be "support for al-Qaeda and its affiliates, whether Jabat al-Nusra or the State of Islam in Syria and Iraq".
Continue reading the main story While fighting rages on in Syria, debate continues in the US and France over whether they will intervene militarily following the chemical attack of 21 August.
Nato chief Anders Fogh Rasmussen said he was personally convinced Syria had carried out the attack and called for a "firm international response".
But Russia is firmly opposed to military intervention - a protest against American action was held outside the US consulate in St Petersburg on Monday.
An estimated 100,00 people have been killed in Syria since 2011. On Monday, 20 rebel fighters were reported killed in an army ambush in Adra, north-east of Damascus.
Some 1.7 million Syrians - from a pre-conflict population of 22 million - are now living as refugees in neighbouring countries.

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Jabat al-Nusra and other groups linked to al-Qaeda have come to play a significant anti-Assad role in the conflict.

• Considered 20 times more deadly than cyanide
• Attacks the nervous system, often causing respiratory failure. Can cause death within minutes of exposure
• Difficult to detect as it is odourless, tasteless and colourless
• Syria is believed to have started producing it in the 1980s
• Among the agents used by the Iraqi government when it killed 5,000 Iraqi Kurds in Halabja in 1988

• Q&A: Sarin nerve agent

Mr Mekdad - considered to be highly influential within the Assad government - also warned that possible US intervention would deepen "hatred for the Americans" and destabilise the whole Middle East.
President Obama was "determined to launch an attack", he said, and the US Congress would base any decision on attacking Syria on whether it was in the interests of Israel.
Syria is known to have extensive supplies of chemical weapons.
Mr Obama has often said that using them would cross a "red line", prompting US intervention.
Forces which could be used against Syria:

• Five US destroyers - USS Gravely, USS Ramage, USS Barry, USS Mahan and USS Stout - are in the eastern Mediterranean, equipped with cruise missiles. The missiles can also be fired from submarines, but the US Navy does not reveal their locations
• Airbases at Incirlik and Izmir in Turkey, and in Jordan, could be used to carry out strikes
• Two aircraft carriers - USS Nimitz and USS Harry S Truman are in the wider region
• French aircraft carrier Charles de Gaulle is currently in Toulon in the western Mediterranean
• French Rafale and Mirage aircraft can also operate from Al-Dhahra airbase in the UAE

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-23928871

French intel blames Syria's Assad for 'massive' chemical attack

AFP

- ‎2 hours ago‎

PARIS - A French intelligence report said Monday that forces loyal to Bashar al-Assad carried out a "massive" chemical attack last month, as the Syrian leader warned that military strikes against him would risk igniting a regional war. . .