John Kerry Again Claims Syria’s Bashar al-Assad Used Poison Gas
At a Wednesday U.N. Security Council session, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry once again claimed Syrian President Bashar al-Assad used poison gas in response to the Syrian rebellion that was sparked by political protests.
“That is how this whole thing began. People in a country looking for a future,” Kerry said at the U.N. “Who were instead met with repression, with torture, with gasing, with barrel bombs.”
Over 60 chemical weapons attacks have been reported in Syria by various news outlets, governments, and NGOs, BBC says. The most recent of these attacks, which happened in the Syrian village of Sarmin, is allegedly the work of ISIS.
Russia must put pressure on Assad to “stop the use of barrel bombs, and prevent any use of chemicals as weapons by the regime,” said Philip Hammond, England’s Secretary of Foreign Affairs, BBC reports.
Yet, Assad’s government and the Syrian rebels deny using chemical weapons, Al-Jazeera reports.
“If these countries are willing to launch an aggression or military act against Syria,” said Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Moualem in 2013. “I believe, the pretext of chemical weapons is false, baseless and groundless. And as I said, I challenge, I dare them to produce any single piece of evidence.”
In August 2015, the U.N. Security Council answered calls for evidence by creating an investigation that aims to discover the culprits of the Syrian chemical weapon attacks. The U.S. is “certain” that Assad used chlorine gas against his own people but is still gathering evidence, said Kerry earlier this month.
“We are certain that the preponderance of those attacks have been carried out by the regime, and we’re putting together a portfolio of that data that supports that even as we speak now,” Kerry said.
In 2013, the U.S. wanted to militarily intervene in Syria after claiming Assad used chemical weapons on the outskirts of Damascus, but their claim was disproven when German intelligence said that Assad didn’t order the use of chemical weapons, the Guardian reports.
Four investigations — three from the U.N. and one from Russia — into Syrian chemical weapons attacks have been published.
Chemical weapons involving Sarin gas, a nerve agent, were reportedly used in Syria’s Ghouta region outside Damascus but no blame was assigned, said a 2013 U.N. report. Poisonous chlorine gas was reportedly used in Syria’s Idlib and Hama region that came from a Syrian army stockpile and were allegedly used by Assad’s governmental forces, said a 2014 U.N. Human Right’s Council report. Chlorine gas was further reportedly used in the Syrian villages of Talmenes, Al-Tamanah, and Kafr Zita but no blame was assigned, said a 2014 Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons report.
In 2013, Syria’s government requested Russia to investigate the chemical weapons used at the village of Khan Al-Sal. Chemicals were used in a missile launched by the Free Syrian Army, according to the report.
Russian President Vladimir Putin continues to stand by the government of Assad. In 2013, the Russian President said he doesn’t believe it’s clear that Assad’s government was behind the Ghouta chemical weapons attack, BBC reports.
“It is clear that [chemical] arms were used… it’s just not clear who did it,” Putin said. “We have every reason to believe that it was a provocation.”
Putin also said he was confident that Assad’s government will destroy their chemical weapon stockpile.
“These are practical steps which the Syrian government has already made,” Putin said. “Whether we will manage to see everything through, I cannot say 100%. But everything that we have seen up to now, in recent days, inspires confidence that this is possible and that it will be done.”
The U.N.’s ongoing investigation will shed light on who’s behind the chemical weapons attacks in Syria within the year.
Watch Kerry’s remarks at the U.N. below.
[Header Image via Spencer Platt/Getty Images]
