UNITED NATIONS - The U.N. Security Council called Wednesday for “a thorough, impartial and prompt investigation” of the latest allegation of chemical-weapons use in Syria.
The council backed Secretary-General Ban Kimoon’s determination to ensure a “thorough investigation” of the purported attack, in which President Bashar Assad’s regime was accused of carrying out a toxic-gas attack that killed at least 100 people. The government denied using chemical weapons.
Photographs and videos showed rooms full of lifeless bodies laid out in rows, some wrapped in white cloths, others lined up in mass graves. Some showed victims staring and motionless, others twitching uncontrollably. Few of the victims appeared to have conventional injuries.
U.N. deputy spokesman Eduardo del Buey said earlier that the secretary-general was “shocked” at Wednesday’s allegations of chemical-weapons use and wants all reported attacks investigated.
During a two-hour private meeting, diplomats said Russia and China, which support the Syrian government, blocked a stronger press statement supported by Britain, France, the United States and others.
But Russia and China agreed that the council president could sum up the session with “press elements” - close to the weakest response from the U.N.’s most powerful body, the diplomats said, speaking on condition of anonymity because the discussions were private.
Russian Foreign Ministry spokesman Alexander Lukashevich issued a statement questioning the validity of claims that the Syrian government was behind the attack, saying Russia’s information indicated that the rocket had been launched from positions in a Damascus suburb occupied by opposition forces.
He said the accusations that the government was behind the attack seemed to be aimed at undermining efforts to convene an international peace conference.
He said Russia was calling for a “professional and fair investigation” and, he said, “all of this looks like an attempt at all costs to create a pretext for demanding that the U.N.Security Council side with opponents of the regime and undermine the chances of convening the Geneva conference.”
The Syrian ambassador to Russia, Riyad Haddad, also told the Interfax news agency that the reports were false.
“The Syrian forces have never used, do not use and will not use chemical weapons even if they had them,” Haddad said. “All reports on this topic are aimed at repeating the Iraqi scenario in Syria, where there were allegedly weapons of mass destruction.”
Argentina’s U.N. Ambassador Maria Cristina Perceval, the current council president, said there was “strong concern” about the latest allegations of alleged chemical-weapons use “and a general sense that there must be clarity on what happened.”
Perceval said council members “welcomed the determination of the secretary-general to ensure a thorough, impartial and prompt investigation.”
“All council members agreed that any use of chemical weapons by any side under any circumstances is a violation of international law,” she said. “There was also an agreement for a strong call for a cessation of hostilities and a cease-fire … [and] the need for immediate humanitarian assistance to the victims.”
The attack coincided with the visit to Syria by a 20-member U.N. chemical-weapons team that only has a mandate to investigate three previous allegations of chemical-weapons use.
Before the council meeting, a letter drafted by Britain and France was sent to the secretary-general requesting that the team launch “an urgent investigation … as expeditiously as possible” into Wednesday’s reported attack as well.
Britain’s Deputy U.N. Ambassador Philip Parham said about 35 countries signed the letter, including the United States.
U.N. Deputy Secretary-General Jan Eliasson, who briefed the council, expressed hope that the Syrian government would give the team access to the site as soon as possible, though he cautioned that “the security situation right now does not allow such access.”
He called for a cessation of hostilities not only in the area of the purported attack but throughout Syria, where the U.N. says more than 100,000 people have been killed in the 2½-year conflict.
“What this incident has shown is, of course, that we must contain this conflict,” Eliasson said. “We have already seen effects on the regional implications, and now, the possibility of the use of chemical weapons which is to be investigated.”
A White House spokesman said the U.S. supported a U.N. investigation.
“If the Syrian government has nothing to hide and is truly committed to an impartial and credible investigation of chemical-weapons use in Syria, it will facilitate the U.N. team’s immediate and unfettered access to this site,” the White House said.
Under the terms of an agreement between the U.N. and the Syrian government, the U.N. team will investigate a purported March 19 chemical-weapons attack on the village of Khan al Assal outside the city of Aleppo, which was captured by the rebels last month. It also will investigate two other sites, which are being kept secret for security reasons.
Chemical-weapons experts have raised doubts about whether the team will find anything at the three sites, because those attacks reportedly took place months ago. But if chemical weapons were used Wednesday, a prompt investigation would be much more likely to produce evidence.
Del Buey said the head of the U.N. team, Swedish professor Ake Sellstrom, “is in discussions with the Syrian government on all issues pertaining to the alleged use of chemical weapons, including this most recent reported incident.”
He said the secretary-general was aware that a number of member states, the Arab League and the European Union have expressed “grave concern” about the latest alleged attack.
“The secretary-general reaffirms his determination to ensure a thorough investigation of the reported alleged incidents that are brought to his attention by member states,” del Buey said.
Diplomats cautioned that the mandate for the current investigation is limited.
The U.N. team will report on whether chemical weapons were used, and if so which ones, but it will not determine the responsibility for an attack.
This has led some commentators to question the value of the investigation.
On June 13, the United States said it had conclusive evidence that Assad’s regime had used chemical weapons against opposition forces. That crossed what President Barack Obama had called a “red line” and prompted a U.S. decision to send arms and ammunition to the opposition, though reports say none has arrived yet.
The Obama administration searched for answers Wednesday about the reported chemical-weapons attack in Syria.
“The United States is deeply concerned by reports that hundreds of Syrian civilians have been killed in an attack by Syrian government forces, including by the use of chemical weapons,” White House spokesman Josh Earnest said.
“We are working urgently to gather additional information,” Earnest said, adding that Washington has asked for U.N. investigators to be granted access to the area of the fighting.
He made no mention of possible consequences if chemical-weapons use is confirmed.
Meanwhile, the possibility of intervention appeared to shrink after America’s top general offered a pessimistic assessment of options this week.
Gen. Martin Dempsey, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said in a letter to a congressman that the administration is opposed to even limited action in Syria because it believes rebels fighting the Assad government wouldn’t support American interests if they seized power.
Dempsey said the U.S. military is clearly capable of taking out Assad’s air force and shifting the balance of the war toward the armed opposition. But such an approach would plunge the U.S. into the war without offering any strategy for ending what has become a sectarian fight, he said.
Dempsey, in his letter, said, “Syria today is not about choosing between two sides but rather about choosing one among many sides.” In the Aug. 19 letter to Rep. Eliot Engel, D-N.Y., he said, “It is my belief that the side we choose must be ready to promote their interests and ours when the balance shifts in their favor. Today, they are not.”
Despite Dempsey’s assessment of the forces fighting Assad, Obama recognized Syria’s opposition coalition as “the legitimate representative” of the Syrian people more than eight months ago. But the more than 50 distinct rebel groups fighting to end the Assad family’s four-decade dynasty range wildly in political beliefs and not all are interested in Western support.
As the conflict has dragged on, al-Qaida-linked rebels and other extremist groups have been responsible for some of the same types of massacres and ethnic attacks that the Assad government is accused of.
On Tuesday, Kurdish militias battled against al-Qaida linked fighters in the northeast in fighting that has fueled a mass exodus of refugees into Iraq.
Dempsey said Syria was experiencing “a deeply rooted, long-term conflict among multiple factions and violent struggles for power” that will continue after Assad’s rule ends.
At a televised news conference Wednesday, George Sabra, a leader in Syria’s opposition coalition, accused the international community of complicity in the killings by not intervening to protect Syrians, and he called for increased international support for the opposition.
“American resistance is killing us,” he said. “The silence of our friends is killing us. The betrayal of the international community is killing us. The disinterest of the Arabs and the Muslims is killing us. The hypocrisy of the world that we considered free is killing us and killing us and killing us.”
Information for this article was contributed by Edith M. Lederer, Bradley Klapper and staff members of The Associated Press and by Ben Hubbard, Hwaida Saad, David M. Herszenhorn, C.J. Chivers, Peter Baker, Thom Shanker, Alan Cowell, Alissa J. Rubin and Rick Gladstone of The New York Times.
Front Section, Pages 1 on 08/22/2013