AFP 56 minutes ago http://news.yahoo.com/ban-present-key-syria-chemical-report-213025154.html UN leaders have "agonized" over a report that Secretary General Ban Ki-moon will present Monday on chemical weapons in Syria that could renew pressure on President Bashar al-Assad, officials said. Ban will present the report to the UN Security Council at 11:15am (1515 GMT). He has already revealed that he expects the report by a UN investigation team to give "overwhelming" confirmation that arms were used in an attack near Damascus on August 21 in which hundreds died. But the UN team is not allowed to say who carried out the attack, which the West blames on Assad. While diplomats say the detail will give a clear pointer to who is responsible, opponents and supporters of Assad -- who pleads innocence -- will be looking for evidence to back their case. A Russia-US accord on the dismantling of Syria's chemical stockpile will also weigh heavily on Security Council consultations expected to be called Monday. Russia's Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov on Saturday slammed what he called attempts to "retouch" the UN report. Syria's UN envoy, Bashar Jaafari, has also said his government will not accept a "politicized" report. ..View gallery." UN arms experts inspect a site suspected of being hit UN arms experts arrive to inspect a site suspected of being hit by a deadly chemical weapons attack, "Russia, the Americans, all sides, have been putting on pressure over this report," a UN official told AFP, speaking on condition of anonymity. "Ban's office has agonized over every word. The message has to be how serious this attack was but also support the Russia-US initiative." The head of the UN team, Swedish expert Ake Sellstrom, arrived in New York on Sunday and met Ban, officials said. The UN experts went to Damascus on August 18 to investigate claims that chemical weapons were used near Aleppo on March 19 and at two other sites, which have been kept secret. They were in Damascus when the attack on opposition-held Ghouta in the suburbs was staged on August 21. The United States says 1,400 people were killed, and, backed by Britain and France, has blamed the Assad government. The team was immediately put onto the Ghouta attack and will return later to investigate the other sites. ..View gallery." UN arms expert collects samples on August 29, 2013, A UN arms expert collects samples on August 29, 2013, as they inspect the site where rockets had fal Threats to stage a military strike on Assad targets have been thwarted by the British parliament's rejection of action, US President Barack Obama's decision to seek congressional approval, and the Russia-US accord announced Saturday seeking to dismantle Syria's chemical arms by 2014. The UN report will influence any attempt by the UN Security Council to agree a resolution backing the Russia-US accord. Lavrov has made clear Russia will not allow any UN resolution that approves the use of force if Assad does not carry out the accord. Western nations insist there must be "consequences." The UN report promises to be very technical, with details of the missile used and possibly the trajectory of the missile, according to diplomats. It was not certain however whether Sellstrom's report would give full details of the chemical used. "They have collected a considerable amount of evidence -- evidence through samples, evidence through witness interviews -- and they can construct through that a fact-based narrative that can get at the key facts of what happened on August 21," a UN spokesman said on August 29 before the team left through Damascus. The samples of blood, hair, urine, soil and other elements have been analyzed at laboratories in Germany, Switzerland, Sweden and Finland, according to officials. Alongside the report, Ban will make his own presentation, which could also influence the next stages of the diplomatic debate. "The commission had access to a very large amount of evidence," said a UN Security Council diplomat, who spoke on condition of anonymity. "Any reader of the report will be able to guess who carried it out." "That is not so important now," added a second diplomat. "What is important is the negotiations for a council resolution on the Geneva accord."
Yes this is the sort of stuff the UN is best at. Writing documents that are based on politics and not offending anyone. The UN is going to do nothing. Obama is going to try to use this document to attempt to persuade the American people of an attack.
The UN report could have been used to legitimise the US strike on Syria but it has become irrelevant now after Russia put forward an alternative plan to disarm Syria. France also declassified its intelligence report on the chemical weapons attack in Syria and it incriminated the Syrian government and concluded that the FSA had no capability to launch a similar attack. The UN report is likely to reach the same conclusion.
How could it have legitimized anything? The French assessment is that of any assessment you would expect from a country that wants to attack Assad. As for actual evidence, there STILL is none. We must assume US lied about having evidence, seeing as there's no reason why they wouoldn't share it with the very people they need to convince. - - - Updated - - - So I guess that begs the question: what's your point?
No I don't like that report after I hear that they've been agonizing over it. I think they will fix the report to blame Assad without actually providing real evidence. Perhaps it will be fake evidence concocted in the back room by war hawk politicians. We, around the world, need to know two things: first, whether chemical weapons were used, and, second, who used them. I very much doubt the chemical inspectors stuck around to find out who used the chemical weapons, if it was detected at all.
