UN inspectors submit Syria chemical weapons report.

[another_liberal]

Source: Al Jazeera America

U.N. chemical weapons inspectors turned over a long-awaited report on last month’s alleged gas attack in Syria to Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon Monday. The incident, in which the U.S. says more than 1,400 people died, nearly escalated into a U.S.-led punitive military strike against the government of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad – with some allies urging for the report to be completed before taking action.

The report’s release comes two days after Russia and the United States agreed on a framework for the removal of Syria's chemical weapons – halting military action if Assad turns over his chemical weapons to the international community for destruction. Ban will brief a closed session of the U.N. Security Council on Monday morning and the General Assembly later in the day on the report’s findings. He is to hold a press conference at 12:50 p.m. Ban said Friday that he believed there would be "an overwhelming report" that chemical weapons were used in the attack.

The inspection team, led by Swedish chemical weapons expert Ake Sellstrom, was mandated to report on whether chemical weapons were used in the Aug. 21 attack and, if so, which chemical agents were used -- not who was responsible.

(snip)

Secretary of State John Kerry met Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday to brief him on the plan and emerged with a word of warning for Damascus. "The threat of force remains, the threat is real," Kerry said at a joint news conference in Jerusalem with Netanyahu. Following his trip to Israel, Kerry arrived in Paris early Monday to meet with the foreign ministers of France, Britain and Saudi Arabia and brief them as well.


Read more: http://america.aljazeera.com/articles/2013/9/16/un-inspectors-submitsyriachemicalweaponsreport.html

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Without anyone being singled out as the guilty party? Isn't that the essential point in all of this?

[Sand Wind]

1. That was the essential yes, but Russia did not want it and block resolution asking for it. Nt

[pampango]

2. The UN Commission of Inquiry on Syria is responsible for determining the guilty party but

they have never been allowed by Assad to enter Syria.

The UN chemical weapons inspectors were only allowed to enter the country if they agreed beforehand not to determine who the guilty party was. They had to agree to restrict their investigation to the issue of whether chemical weapons were used.

So this report from the inspectors will not address responsibility, but there are some who think that the details they provide may help others (including the Commission of Inquiry on Syria?) to reach a conclusion on responsibility.