Professor Ake Sellstrom, head of the UN chemical weapons investigation in Syria, handing over the report on the Al-Ghouta massacre to Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon Sunday Sept. 15, 2013. (AP Photo/United Nations, Paulo Filgueiras)
Update 3:05 PM EST:
US ambassador to the UN Samantha Power declared Monday in a press conference that the UN’s findings affirm the decision of the US government levy threats of force. She repeated the Obama administration’s unproven claims that forces allied with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad are responsible for the chemical weapons attack and vowed that the US government will “impose measures under Chapter VII” if Syria does not dismantle its chemical weapons.
She levied this treat of force despite the fact that the U.S. cannot legally take military action through Charter VII of the UN unless Russia agrees, as Russia sits on the Security Council.
Powers encouraged other countries to come to their own conclusions about who is responsible for the attack, stating, “Building on today’s findings, we think it’s very important for countries… to speak, and make public their conclusions. … Our impression again is that the technical details will lend themselves to an even more unmistakable conclusion.”
Update 1:00 PM EST:
At a press conference Monday, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon confirmed that the team investigating the Al-Ghouta massacre concluded that sarin had been used. Ki-moon also confirmed that the team did not reaching findings regarding culpability. “It is for others to decide whether to pursue this matter further regarding responsibility,” he stated.
Ki-moon announced, “I stand ready to convene an international conference on Syria as soon as possible.” When pressed by a reporter to outline the UN’s plan to hold the perpetrator accountable, Ki-moon responded, “Those perpetrators who have used chem weapons or any other weapons of mass destruction will have to be brought to justice… How to do and how to promote this and when to do this, this is the content of ongoing discussions in the security council.”
Earlier:
Coming as no surprise, the United Nations team investigating the August 21st Al-Ghouta massacre in Syria reports that sarin gas was the chemical weapon used in the attack.
As has been well-established and repeatedly stated since their investigation began, the UN team’s only mandate was to determine the nature of the weapons used. The investigators were not tasked with drawing conclusions about who may have launched the attack or the circumstances under which it was carried out.
It is not yet clear if the investigators came to any findings on whether the attack was ordered by President Bashar al-Assad or forces aligned against his government.
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon received the report from the UN team on Sunday, and its full findings will be released later on Monday, Reuters reports.
While the complete contents of the report are still unknown, media outlets were able to zoom-in on a photograph of chief chemical weapons investigator Ake Sellstrom handing his report to the UN chief.
“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 … against civilians, including children, on a relatively large scale,” the report reads.
“In particular the environmental, chemical and medical samples we have collected provide clear and convincing evidence that surface to surface rockets containing the nerve agent sarin were used,” it continues.
The Syrian and Russian governments both charge that opposition forces to al-Assad used the chemical weapons, while Western powers—including the United States—insist that al-Assad’s forces are responsible. To date, culpability has not be definitively proven either way.
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