EU-US trade negotiations - Afshin Rattansi + US, UK and France backed Syrian rebels' Damascus chemical cache found by Assad army

Afshin Rattansi: Interview with William Hague, UK's foreign secretary; National Security Agency's targets; Spain's joblessness; Singapore blocking news websites; continuing NATO war on Mali; Trial of Chad's former dictator Hissene Habre; IMF World Outlook; Egypt's military government; Latin America's response to Evo Morales' plane being forced to land in Vienna...



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US, UK and France backed Syrian rebels' Damascus chemical cache found by Assad army

The Syrian army has discovered western backed rebels' storehouse in Jobar in the Damascus area, where toxic chemical substances, including chlorine, have been produced and kept, State TV reported.
RT: Military sources reported that the militants "were preparing to fire mortars in the suburbs of the capital and were going to pack missiles with chemical warheads." 
On July 7, the Syrian army confiscated “281 barrels filled with dangerous, hazardous chemical materials” that they found also found at a cache belonging to rebels in the city of Banias. The chemicals included monoethylene glycol and polyethylene glycol.
Syrian UN Ambassador Bashar Ja’afari said that the chemicals were “capable of destroying a whole city, if not the whole country."


On Monday chief UN chemical weapons investigator Ake Sellstrom and UN disarmament chief Angela Kane are expected in Damascus for talks following a Syrian government invitation.

Earlier this week, Russia submitted to the UN its analysis of the samples taken at the Syrian town in the northern province of Aleppo, where chemical weapons were allegedly used.

Russia’s findings indicated that it was rebels - not the Syrian army - behind the Khan al-Assal incident, in which more than 30 people died.

“It was determined that on March 19 the rebels fired an unguided missile Bashair-3 at the town of Khan al-Assal, which has been under government control. The results of the analysis clearly show that the shell used in Khan al-Assal was not factory made and that it contained sarin,” Russia’s UN envoy Vitaly Churkin said.

The United States cast doubt on the Russian analysis. In response, Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov underlined that the samples of the chemical weapons had been taken at the very place where they were used and were delivered by Russian experts rather than passed through third-party hands.

“We submitted a full set of documents [to the UN]. That’s over 80 pages, including photographs and precise geographic coordinates [of places where samples were taken], procedures and results,” Lavrov pointed out. “We also guarantee that the samples were taken by experts who did not let go of them till they were delivered to the laboratory.” 

Damascus was the first to accuse opposition fighters of launching a chemical weapon attack and to request the UN investigation.
Syrian rebel groups denied the accusations, in turn blaming government forces.
The UN investigation became stuck after a group of Western nations insisted on launching an inquiry into a separate case of alleged chemical weapons use in Homs in December 2012. The investigation requires access to military objects, which Damascus has been unwilling to give.
So far, the UN has not found any conclusive evidence proving that either side of the conflict used chemical weapons.
At the same time US, UK and France submitted several reports, in which they claimed there is evidence that Syrian President Bashar Assad’s forces used chemical weapons. 

Source