Allegations of the use of sarin gas in chemical weapon attacks in Syria have been confirmed by testers, announced French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius Tuesday. Samples were taken to France as reports of chemical weapon use have come out of Syria in recent months.
Fabius made the announcement at a meeting Tuesday with an United Nations task force assigned to assessing whether claims of chemical weapon use were accurate:
“France now has the certainty that the sarin gas was used in Syria several times and in a localized manner.”
Much remains to be clarified, however, including when and where the chemical weapons may have been used and whose forces used them on the battlefield – Syrian rebels or Loyalist forces. Both sides have accused each other of using the weapons.
It was reported that Jay Carney, the White House Press Secretary, stated that the US is working with France and other allies to determine the answers to these questions:
“We need to expand the evidence we have. We need to make it reviewable; we need to have it corroborated before we make any decisions based on the clear violation that use of chemical weapons would represent.”
The confirmation of sarin gas attacks in Syria is significant as President Obama and other allied leaders have stated that chemical weapons use in the ongoing conflict to be a “red line” for intervention – once crossed, UN or NATO forces may be obligated to send military forces to Syria.
Chemical weapons have, since their first widespread use in Europe during World War I, been banned by all major wartime conventions and prohibited by most militaries. Sarin gas exposure has become identifiable by painful chemical burns on the victim’s skin and if inhaled, severe lung scarring.
Reports of chemical weapon use in the form of sarin gas attacks in Syria has been confirmed; will it prompt a more aggressive response to the conflict from Western powers?
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