UN experts head to suspected Syria chemical attack site
27 Aug 2013 11:12 PM GMT
UN inspectors headed today to the site of a suspected deadly chemical weapons attack in Syria as the West mulled possible military action but President Bashar al-Assad warned that any strike would fail.
Britain said the West could act even without full UN Security Council backing after last week's alleged gas attack near Damascus which the Syrian opposition said killed hundreds of civilians.
Washington and its allies have pointed the finger of blame at Assad's regime for the alleged attack, which has sharply escalated tensions over a conflict that has claimed the lives of more than 100,000 people.
Assad, in an interview with a Russian newspaper published today, angrily denied the accusations as an ‘insult to common sense’ and said any military action was doomed to failure.
‘The United States faces failure just like in all the previous wars they waged,’ he said.
And Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov - whose government is the Damascus regime's close ally - warned his US counterpart John Kerry of the ‘extremely dangerous consequences’ of launching military action.
The Syrian authorities approved the UN inspection of the site in Ghouta east of Damascus on Sunday, but US officials said it was too little, too late, arguing that persistent shelling there in recent days had ‘corrupted’ the site.
Mortar shells also hit a mosque in the centre of Damascus on Monday, the Syrian news agency SANA said, blaming ‘terrorists’, its term for rebel fighters.
The international community has long been divided over how to respond to the conflict, with Russia and China repeatedly blocking UN Security Council resolutions.
Britain said the West could act even without full UN Security Council backing after last week's alleged gas attack near Damascus which the Syrian opposition said killed hundreds of civilians.
Washington and its allies have pointed the finger of blame at Assad's regime for the alleged attack, which has sharply escalated tensions over a conflict that has claimed the lives of more than 100,000 people.
Assad, in an interview with a Russian newspaper published today, angrily denied the accusations as an ‘insult to common sense’ and said any military action was doomed to failure.
‘The United States faces failure just like in all the previous wars they waged,’ he said.
And Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov - whose government is the Damascus regime's close ally - warned his US counterpart John Kerry of the ‘extremely dangerous consequences’ of launching military action.
The Syrian authorities approved the UN inspection of the site in Ghouta east of Damascus on Sunday, but US officials said it was too little, too late, arguing that persistent shelling there in recent days had ‘corrupted’ the site.
Mortar shells also hit a mosque in the centre of Damascus on Monday, the Syrian news agency SANA said, blaming ‘terrorists’, its term for rebel fighters.
The international community has long been divided over how to respond to the conflict, with Russia and China repeatedly blocking UN Security Council resolutions.
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