Turkey- As the debate over who used chemical weapons in Syria continues, the Syrian National Coalition held a symposium in Turkey to discuss the issue.Participants in the symposium discussed the legal, military and medical implications about the use of chemical weapons in Syria.
Until now there have been conflicting views on which side used the nerve agent, sarin, President Bashar al-Assad’s security forces or the rebels.
The UN says it has inconclusive evidence. U.S. Defense Secretary, Chuck Hagel, said the U.S. has “some degree of varying confidence” that the Syrian government used sarin.
And members of the Syrian National Council attending the symposium insist they have proof.
"We have samples that prove the gas, sarin, has been used and we are ready to give it to an international committee that can test it for evidence," Mustafa Haj Hamed of Syrian National Council said.
But the council’s alleged forensic evidence that someone died from sarin exposure doesn’t prove who used it.
The UN has distanced itself from remarks made by one of its investigators Sunday that there was “strong concrete suspicions” that the rebels used chemicals, a suspicion shared by the Syrian government, but rejected by the U.S.
The facts remain unclear. All parties in this dispute agree on one thing - the proven use of chemical weapons in Syria’s largest city, Aleppo, would amount to a “red line” that can’t be tolerated by the international community.
All have called on the United Nations to sort out the truth.
