photo: CBS
The UN commission investigating the sarin attack that killed scores in Damascus in August is hinting at the contents of its reports.
The UN has promised to deliver the final results, weeks in advance, due to prompting from the State Department and the Obama administration, to speed up the process of making count and disposing the chemical weapons possessed by Assad.
Until then, hints have been given, including Ban Ki Moon's own words captured mistakenly during a closed session meeting, of where the culpability lies for the attacks.
In the report will be contained precise details on the quantity of the gas, its delivery method and the trajectory of the missiles that contained the heads loaded with the gas.
The information that has already leaked out speaks of about 350 liters of sarin gas, quite a large amount, which would be hard to be handmade by rebels.
More interestingly the delivery device, in which the sarin was contained, has Russian inscriptions, making the Free Syria rebel source very much impossible.
The UN has said that they will not assign responsibility, but will merely give all the information so that other organizations or governments will be able to draw a definite conclusion.
Although Russia seemed to be aligned with the US on the agreement to make Syria dispose of its chemical arsenal, Russian officials have started to complain about the agreement details.
Lavrov, John Kerry's Russian counterpart, has already accused the US of misinterpreting the agreement. Lavrov in fact, wants to see the US completely abandon the 'if not, then strike' line of action, and contends that the agreement does not provide for that 'if' clause. Once signed, the Russian expect the US to renounce all plans for attack. That in itself is very telling of Russia's intentions. The agreement, in fact, could have simply been a check to completely halt UN war resolution against Syria, whether Assad complies or not.
However, France is not so easily mollified. Hollande is pressing for more stringent deadline and is fretting that the lack of strikes might cause a widening of the conflict and a radicalization of the rebels that in part are coming from the ranks of French youth.
To boot, there are news circulating that Syria may have already moved part of its cache abroad, to avoid complete destruction of its arsenal.
The fact also remains, that the timetable and the destruction of the chemical cache will not be of any advantage to the Syrian people, since Assad is now emboldened to try and regain control of Syria.
The bloodshed, in fact, continues unabated.
Partial Sources : Al Jazeera/ France 24 / 9.16.13
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