After almost a decade at the helm of the world’s most powerful alliance, the EU Secretary General is ready to pass the baton.
New evidence released by France on Wednesday directly links the Syrian regime to the April 4 chemical attack that killed more than 80 people, including many children, and prompted President Donald Trump to order a strike on a Syrian air base.
New evidence released by France on Wednesday directly links the Syrian regime to the April 4 chemical attack that killed more than 80 people, including many children, and prompted President Donald Trump to order a strike on a Syrian air base.
The new evidence, contained in a six-page report prepared by French intelligence, is the most detailed public account of Syria’s alleged use of the deadly nerve agent sarin in the attack on the city of Khan Sheikhoun.
The French report raises new doubts about the validity of what was heralded as the historic U.S.-Russia chemical weapons treaty signed in late 2013 by U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov. The agreement is positioned as an effective means of eliminating the “declared” Syrian chemical weapons program. France also said Syria has been seeking access to tens of tons of isopropyl alcohol, a key ingredient in sarin, since 2014, despite an October 2013 pledge to destroy its chemical weapons arsenal.
“The French assessment concludes that there are still serious doubts about the accuracy, detail and sincerity of the decommissioning of the Syrian chemical weapons arsenal,” the document says. “In particular, France believes that despite Syria’s commitment to destroy all stockpiles and facilities, it has retained the ability to produce or store Sarin.”
France’s findings, based on environmental samples collected at Khan Sheikhoun and a blood sample taken from one of the victims on the day of the attack, support US, UK, Turkish and OPCW claims that Sarin gas was used in Khan Sheikhoun.
But the French go even further, claiming that the strain of sarin used in the attack on Khan Sheikhoun was the same sample of sarin that was collected during the Syrian government’s attack on the city of Sarakib on April 29, 2013. After this attack, France received a copy of an intact, unexploded grenade containing 100 milliliters of sarin.
According to a French newspaper published on Wednesday in Paris by French Foreign Minister Jean-Marc Herault, a chemical explosive device was dropped from a helicopter and “the Syrian regime must have used it in the attack on Sarakib.”
Examination of the grenade revealed traces of the chemical hexamine, a key component of the Syrian chemical weapons program. According to French reports, the Syrian Center for Scientific Research, the regime’s chemical weapons incubator, has developed a process for adding herotropin to the two main components of sarin, isopropanol and methylphosphonodifluoride, to stabilize sarin and increase its effectiveness.
According to the French newspaper, “the sarin present in the munitions used on April 4 was produced using the same production process that was used by the Syrian regime in the Sarin attack in Saraqib.” “Furthermore, the presence of hexamine suggests that the manufacturing process was developed by the Syrian regime’s research center.”
“This is the first time the national government has publicly confirmed that the Syrian government used hexamine to produce sarin, confirming a hypothesis that has been circulating for more than three years,” said Dan Casetta, a London-based chemical weapons expert and former US official. Army Chemical Corps Officer Urotropine has not been found in sarin projects in other countries.
“The presence of urotropin,” he said, “links all these incidents to sarin and links them closely to the Syrian government.”
“French intelligence reports provide the most compelling scientific evidence linking the Syrian government to the Khan Sheikhoun sarin attacks,” said Gregory Koblenz, director of the biodefense graduate program at George Mason University. “
The Syrian Research Center (SSRC) was established in the early 1970s to covertly develop chemical and other non-conventional weapons. Back in the mid-1980s, the CIA claimed that the Syrian regime was capable of producing almost 8 tons of sarin per month.
The Trump administration, which has released little evidence of Syrian involvement in the Khan Sheikhoun attack, this week sanctioned 271 SSRC employees in retaliation for the attack.
The Syrian regime denies the use of sarin or any other chemical weapon. Russia, Syria’s main backer, said the release of poisonous substances in Khan Sheikhoun was the result of Syrian airstrikes on rebel chemical weapons depots.
But French newspapers disputed that claim, stating that “the theory that the armed groups used a nerve agent to carry out the April 4 attacks is not credible…None of these groups had the ability to use the nerve agent or the required volume of air.” .
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The discussions were attended by a former US ambassador, an expert on Iran, an expert on Libya and a former adviser to the British Conservative Party.
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