(AP) France said Tuesday it has confirmed that the nerve gas sarin was
used "multiple times and in a localized way" in Syria, including at
least once by the regime. It was the most specific claim by any Western
power about chemical weapons attacks in the 27-month-old conflict.
Britain later said that tests it conducted on samples taken from Syria also were positive for sarin.
The
back-to-back announcements left many questions unanswered, highlighting
the difficulties of confirming from a distance whether combatants in
Syria have crossed the "red line" set by President Barack Obama. The
regime of Syrian President Bashar Assad has refused to allow U.N.
investigators into the country.
The French and British findings,
based on samples taken from Syria, came hours after a U.N. team said it
had "reasonable grounds" to suspect small-scale use of toxic chemicals
in at least four attacks in March and April.
The U.N. probe was
conducted from outside Syria's borders, based on interviews with doctors
and witnesses of purported attacks and a review of amateur videos from
Syria. The team said solid evidence will remain elusive until inspectors
can collect samples from victims directly or from the sites of alleged
attacks.
Some experts cautioned that the type of evidence
currently available to investigators — videos, witness reports and
physiological samples of uncertain origin — leaves wide doubts.
At
the same time, forensic evidence of alleged chemical weapons use is
fading away with time, and the longer U.N. inspectors are kept out of
Syria, the harder it will be to collect conclusive proof, they said.
Syria
is suspected of having one of the world's largest chemical weapons
arsenals, including mustard and nerve gas, such as sarin. In recent
weeks, the regime and those trying to topple Assad have increasingly
used accusations of chemical weapons use as a propaganda tool, but have
offered no solid proof.
In the West, meanwhile, the lack of
certainty about such allegations is linked to a high stakes political
debate over whether the U.S. should get more involved in the Syria
conflict, including by arming those fighting Assad.
Obama has
been reluctant to send weapons to the Syrian rebels, in part because of
the strong presence of Islamic militants among them. Obama has warned
that the use of chemical weapons or their transfer to a terrorist group
would cross a "red line," hinting at forceful intervention in such an
event.
Yet he has insisted on a high level of proof, including a
"chain of custody," that can only come from on-site investigations
currently being blocked by the regime.
In Tuesday's announcement
about sarin, French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius said his government
had analyzed several samples, including some brought back from Syria by
reporters from the Le Monde newspaper.
He said that there was "no
doubt" that at least in one case, the regime and its allies were
responsible for the attack. "We have integrally traced the chain, from
the attack, to the moment people were killed, to when the samples were
taken and analyzed," Fabius told the TV station France 2.
He said
a line was crossed and that "all options are on the table," including
intervening "militarily where the gas is produced or stored."
In
London, Britain's Foreign Office said samples from Syria were tested at a
government laboratory and that the presence of sarin was confirmed. It
did not say when or where the samples were obtained.
