First, over the evidence that Assad used chemical weapons
Russia’s foreign minister said Saturday that the evidence put forth by the United States of chemical weapons use in Syria apparently doesn’t meet stringent criteria for reliability.
...In Moscow, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said the material does not include guarantees that it meets the requirements of the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons. He said the organization specifies that samples taken from blood, urine and clothing can be considered reliable evidence only if supervised by organization experts from the time they are taken up to delivery to a laboratory.
[source : Russia questions Syrian chemical weapons evidence, Times of Israel, http://www.timesofisrael.com/russia-questions-syrian-chemical-weapons-evidence/, 15th June 2013]
This supports the claim made to The Cable yesterday that the chain of custody of the Sarin samples that the claims of use are based on is not secure.
When the White House first publicly announced in late April its belief that the Assad regime in Syria had used chemical weapons on its own people, it stressed that this was only a strong suspicion -- not a certainty. Yes, they had blood samples that indicated exposure to deadly sarin gas. But they couldn't say for sure who handled those samples in the two weeks it took to get the blood into Western hands. "The physiological examples are compelling but without being able to determine the chain of custody, that's the key to confirming the use," one unnamed U.S. official told the New York Times earlier this week.
That chain of custody still hasn't been nailed down, an American intelligence source tells The Cable.
[source : Source: U.S. Couldn't Nail Down Chemical Weapons Chain of Custody, The Cable, http://thecable.foreignpolicy.com/posts/2013/06/14/us_can_t_nail_down_chemical_weapon_chain_of_custody_but_declared_war_on_assad_anywa, 14th June 2013 (registration required)]
Second, any No Fly Zone would be against international law.
The Russian foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, has said that any attempt to enforce a no-fly zone over Syria using US fighter jets and Patriot missiles from Jordan would violate international law.
..."There have been leaks from western media regarding the serious consideration to create a no-fly zone over Syria through the deployment of Patriot anti-aircraft missiles and F-16 jets in Jordan," Lavrov said. "You don't have to be a great expert to understand that this will violate international law."
The US has moved Patriot missiles and fighter jets into Jordan in the past week, officially as part of an annual exercise, but it made clear that the military assets could stay on when the war games were over.
The Wall Street Journal has reported that a US military proposal to arm rebels fighting against Assad would include a limited no-fly zone inside Syria that could be enforced by US and allied planes on Jordanian territory. The US says it has evidence of Syria's use of chemical weapons, but Lavrov said it was not clear that the US evidence would meet international standards of reliability.
He said the evidence must meet the standards of the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, which specifies that samples taken from blood, urine and clothing can be considered reliable evidence only if supervised by organisation experts from the time they are gathered to when they are delivered to a laboratory.
[source : Syria no-fly zone would violate international law, says Russia, The Guardian, http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/jun/15/syria-no-fly-zone-violate-international-law-russia, 15th June 2013]
So the evidence is shaky, a No Fly Zone would be illegal, and there are concerns from some that supplying the rebs with small arms and ammunition is too little, too late.
No comments:
Post a Comment