UNITED NATIONS: UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon yesterday pressed UN chemical weapons inspectors to speed up their verdict on a suspected chemical weapons attack in Syria, his spokesman said.
Samples collected in Syria will start to be sent to European laboratories from today.
The UN also revealed that two Syrian government officials are observing the handling of evidence collected during a UN investigation into the August 21 attack near Damascus that prompted western threats of a military strike on President Bashar Al Assad’s forces.
Pressure on the UN is mounting as the United States said that it has proof that sarin gas was used by government forces in the attack on the Ghouta area, in the Damascus suburbs, which it says left hundreds dead. Ban spoke with the UN chemical weapons inquiry chief Ake Sellstrom yesterday, the UN spokesman Martin Nesirky said.
“In light of the horrendous magnitude of the 21 August incident,” Ban asked Sellstrom “to expedite the mission’s analysis of the samples and information it had obtained without jeopardizing the scientific timelines required for accurate analysis,” Nesirky said. “They discussed ways to further accelerate the process,” he added.
The United Nations has refused to announce its timeline for finishing the analysis. Nesirky said the presence of the government officials was part of the “guidelines” for the UN inquiry which was established after a demand by the Syrian government.
AFP
