Materials implicating Syrian govt in chemical attack prepared before incident – Russia

Published time: August 23, 2013 11:37 Edited time: August 23, 2013 19:41 A man holds the body of a dead child among bodies of people activists say were killed by nerve gas in the Ghouta region, in the Duma neighbourhood of Damascus August 21, 2013. (Reuters/Bassam Khabieh) Syria unrest Conflict, Crime, EU, Military, Opposition, Russia, Syria, Terrorism, UN Materials implicating the forces of Syrian president Bashar Assad in chemical weapons use near Damascus were prepared prior to the alleged incident on August 21, the Russian foreign ministry said. Moscow continues to monitor closely the event surrounding the “alleged” chemical attack near Damascus, Russian Foreign Ministry spokesman, Aleksandr Lukashevich, said in a statement. “We’re getting more new evidence that this criminal act was of a provocative nature,” he stressed. “In particular, there are reports circulating on the Internet, in particular that the materials of the incident and accusations against government troops had been posted for several hours before the so-called attack. Thus, it was a pre-planned action.” Below are the three videos posted on Youtube said to be showing the child victims affected by chemical weapons near Damascus. Despite the date of the alleged attack – August 21 – being mentioned in their titles, they were posted on YouTube one the previous day, August 20. Despite the 7-hour time difference between Syria and the US, where the YouTube server is located, the mismatch of the dates in the videos raised concerns among some experts about the exact time of the upload. The Damascus chemical attack accusations indicate the launch of “another anti-Syrian propaganda wave” and, in this context, the calls on the UN Security Council to immediately use force in Syria “heard from some EU capitals” are “unacceptable”, Lukashevich said. The Foreign Ministry spokesman said that Assad’s government has demonstrated a “constructive approach” to the chemical weapons issue by allowing UN experts into the country. But it’s alarming that the “same signals” aren’t coming from the Syrian opposition, which so far hasn’t displayed willingness to ensure the safety and efficient operations of UN investigators on the territory it controls, he said. “This directly impedes the objective investigation of allegations of possible cases of chemical weapons use in Syria, which is called for by a number of countries and which the Russian side supports,” Lukashevich noted. The Russian foreign ministry “strongly appeals to those who should put pressure on the opposition, making it take the necessary steps in order to ensure the full realization of the objectives of the international expert mission,” the spokesman said. Meanwhile, the UK has put the blame for the Damascus chemical attack on Assad’s forces, saying it thought the Syrian government had “something to hide.” "I know that some people in the world would like to say that this is some kind of conspiracy brought about by the opposition in Syria,” William Hague, British Foreign Secretary, is cited as saying by Reuters. “I think the chances of that are vanishingly small and so we do believe that this is a chemical attack by the Assad regime.” The reports of a chemical weapons use in the suburbs of the Ghouta region on the outskirts Damascus appeared in the pro-opposition media on Wednesday, August 21, coinciding with the arrival of the UN investigators to the Syrian capital. The Islamist rebels claimed that over a 1,000 people, including many children, were killed in the attack, with the government saying that the accusations were fabricated in order to cover up the opposition’s battle losses and undermine the work of the UN mission. ===================== Israel says world paying 'lip service' to alleged Syria gas attacks U.N. presses Syria to allow gas attack inspection Thu, Aug 22 2013 Bodies still being found after alleged Syria chemical attack: opposition Thu, Aug 22 2013 Germany urges access for U.N. to check Syria chemical attack reports Thu, Aug 22 2013 France says force needed if Syrian chemical attack proved true Thu, Aug 22 2013 Syria gas 'kills hundreds,' Security Council meets Wed, Aug 21 2013 Analysis & OpinionBeit Jimal monastery in Israel hit by suspected ultranationalist Jewish vandals Syrian opposition reports hundreds killed in chemical weapons attack Related TopicsWorld » Syria » Israel » A survivor from what activists say is a gas attack rests inside a mosque in the Duma neighbourhood of Damascus August 21, 2013. Credit: Reuters/Bassam Khabieh By Jeffrey Heller JERUSALEM | Thu Aug 22, 2013 8:20am EDT JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Israel said on Thursday it believed Syrian forces had used chemical weapons in the killing of hundreds of people in the rebel-held suburbs of Damascus, and it accused the world of turning a blind eye to such attacks. "The world condemns, the world investigates, the world pays lip service," Strategic Affairs Minister Yuval Steinitz said on Israel Radio. "Nothing tangible or significant has been done in the past two years to halt (President Bashar al-) Assad's incessant massacre of his citizens," he said. Opposition activists have accused Assad's forces of gassing hundreds, including women and children, in Wednesday's attack, allegations which government officials deny. Echoing remarks made by Israeli Defense Minister Moshe Yaalon on Wednesday, Steinitz said that according to "Israeli intelligence assessments", chemical weapons had been used in the rebel-held eastern Damascus suburbs, and "not for the first time" in Syria's civil war. He did not provide further details. French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius said on Thursday the international community needed to respond with force if the allegations of a Syrian government chemical attack proved true, although there was no question of sending troops on the ground. Israeli leaders, while pointing a finger at Assad's forces over alleged chemical attacks, have stopped short of urging Western military intervention in the Syrian conflict. Israel has on several occasions taken action of its own, firing into Syria after mortar bombs and shells from battles near the frontier struck inside the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights. Israel captured the Golan from Syria in a 1967 war. For Israel, the conflict in its northern neighbor is a battle between two evils: Assad - who is allied with two of its most strident foes, Iran and Lebanon's Hezbollah guerrillas - and Islamic jihadists fighting with rebels to oust him. In his remarks, Steinitz focused on the Iranian part of the equation, saying Western sanctions already in place over Tehran's suspected quest for atomic weapons should be strengthened with punitive steps over its support for Assad. Iran denies that it is seeking nuclear arms and says it is enriching uranium for peaceful purposes. "If Assad is using chemical weapons and massacring his people, Iran is responsible because Assad is today a total offshoot of Iran. Without Iranian support he would not manage to hold on," Steinitz said, citing arms supplies and funding. Yisrael Katz, Israel's transportation minister, said the alleged horror of gas attacks on Syrians resonated strongly in the Jewish state, founded after the Nazi Holocaust in which many of the six million Jewish dead were killed in gas chambers. Israel has long conducted a national gas mask distribution program for the civilian population. It has accused Syria of stockpiling chemical weapons and voiced concern they could be transferred to Hezbollah or other hostile groups. "Today he (Assad) is murdering his own people, tomorrow he will threaten us and perhaps worse," Katz told Israel Radio. (Additional reporting by Ori Lewis; Editing by Pravin Char) ======================= Syrian soldiers see chemical agents in rebel tunnels: state TV Sat, Aug 24 07:24 AM EDT 1 of 9 By Oliver Holmes BEIRUT (Reuters) - Syrian state television said troops found chemical agents in rebel tunnels in a Damascus suburb on Saturday and some soldiers were "suffocating", intensifying a dispute over blame for a reported nerve gas attack that killed hundreds this week. The top U.N. disarmament official arrived in Damascus on Saturday to seek access for inspectors to the site of the attack and the United States was realigning naval forces in the region to give President Barack Obama the option for an armed strike on Syria. Syrian opposition accounts that between 500 and well over 1,000 civilians were killed by gas in munitions fired by forces loyal to President Bashar al-Assad, and video footage of victims' bodies, have heightened calls in the West for a robust, U.S.-led response after 2-1/2 years of international inaction on Syria's conflict. In a clear attempt to strengthen the government's denials of responsibility for the suspected chemical assault, Syrian state television said soldiers came across chemical agents in rebel tunnels in the suburb of Jobar and some were overcome by fumes. "Army heroes are entering the tunnels of the terrorists and saw chemical agents," it quoted a "news source" as saying. "In some cases, soldiers are suffocating while entering Jobar. Ambulances came to rescue the people suffocating in Jobar." An army unit was preparing to storm the insurgent-held suburb, the television added. Syrian opposition activists accuse Assad's forces of firing nerve gas projectiles into Jobar and other rebellious suburbs before dawn on Wednesday. Later in the week, activists crossed front lines around Damascus to smuggle out tissue samples from victims of the attack. The Syrian government says it would never resort to chemical weapons against Syrian citizens and in the past has accused rebels of doing so for battlefield advantage, an allegation Western leaders have dismissed. Assad's government has suggested rebels may have carried out the latest attack themselves to provoke foreign intervention. Obama has long been hesitant to intervene in Syria, wary of its position straddling faultlines of wider sectarian conflict in the Middle East, and he reiterated such reluctance on Friday. INTELLIGENCE EVIDENCE But, in a development that could raise pressure on Obama to act, American and European security sources said U.S. and allied intelligence agencies had made a preliminary assessment that chemical weapons were used by pro-Assad forces this week. Major world powers - including Russia, Assad's main ally which has long blocked U.N.-sponsored intervention against him - have urged the Syrian leader to cooperate with a U.N. inspection team that arrived on Sunday to pursue earlier allegations of chemical weapons assaults in the civil war. U.N. High Representative for Disarmament Affairs Angela Kane arrived to Damascus on Saturday to press for a Syrian government green light for inspectors to examine areas of Damascus suburbs said to have been targeted on Wednesday. Assad's government has not said whether it will give such access despite increasing pressure from the United Nations, Western and Gulf Arab countries and Russia. If confirmed, it would be the world's deadliest chemical attack in decades. Washington said on Friday it was repositioning warships in the Mediterranean, although officials cautioned that Obama had made no decision on any military move. A U.S. defense official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the navy would expand its presence there to four destroyers from three. Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel, en route to Asia, said Obama had asked the Pentagon for options on Syria. "The Defense Department has responsibility to provide the president with options for all contingencies," Hagel said. "And that requires positioning our forces, positioning our assets, to be able to carry out different options - whatever options the president might choose." He did not elaborate. The defense official said the USS Mahan, a destroyer armed with cruise missiles, had finished its deployment and was due to head back to its home base in Norfolk, Virginia. But, he said, the commander of the U.S. Sixth Fleet has decided to keep the ship in the region. U.S. MILITARY OPTIONS Among the military options under consideration are targeted missile strikes on Syrian units believed responsible for chemical attacks or on Assad's air force and ballistic missile sites, U.S. officials said. Such strikes could be launched from U.S. ships or combat aircraft capable of firing missiles from outside Syrian airspace, thereby avoiding Syrian air defenses. But the defense official stressed the Navy had received no orders to prepare for any military operations regarding Syria. Obama's senior national security advisers will convene at the White House this weekend to discuss U.S. options, including possible military action, against the Syrian government, another U.S. official said. A senior State Department official said no final decisions were expected from the meeting pending a further review of intelligence on the suspected chemical attack. The security sources said the assessment was preliminary and, at this stage, they were still seeking conclusive proof, which could take days, weeks or even longer to gather. Obama called the incident a "big event of grave concern" and one that demanded U.S. attention, but said he was in no rush to get war-weary Americans "mired" in another Middle East conflict. Asked about his comment - made a year and a day before the toxic fumes hit sleeping residents of rebel-held Damascus suburbs - that chemical weapons would be a "red line" for the United States, Obama was circumspect. "If the U.S. goes in and attacks another country without a U.N. mandate and without clear evidence that can be presented, then there are questions in terms of whether international law supports it," he said. "The notion that the U.S. can somehow solve what is a sectarian complex problem inside of Syria sometimes is overstated." While the West accused Assad of a cover-up by preventing the U.N. team from heading out to Damascus suburbs, Russia said the rebels were impeding an investigation. Obama's caution contrasted with calls for action from NATO allies, including France, Britain and Turkey, where leaders saw little doubt Assad's forces had staged pre-dawn missile strikes. But more than two years into a civil war that has divided the Middle East along sectarian lines, a split between Western governments and Russia again illustrated the international deadlock that has thwarted outside efforts to halt the killing. (Additional reporting by Mark Hosenball, Arshad Mohammed, Roberta Rampton, Jeff Mason, Andrea Shalal-Esa, Patricia Zengerle, Phil Stewart and Lesley Wroughton; Writing by Mark Heinrich; Editing by Alison Williams) ===============