BRUSSELS/RIYADH/PARIS/LONDON - The European Union condemned Wednesday the suspected use of chemical weapons by Syrian government forces as “totally unacceptable,” demanding an immediate investigation.
EU foreign affairs head Catherine Ashton said charges by Syria’s main opposition group that a chemical attack by the regime had left over 1,300 dead, “should be immediately and thoroughly investigated.”
A UN mission in Syria to probe previous allegations of chemical weapons use “must be allowed full and unhindered access to all sites,” Ashton said, according to a spokesperson. “The EU reiterates that any use of chemical weapons, by any side in Syria, would be totally unacceptable,” she said.
Saudi Arabia urged the UN Security Council and EU ministers Wednesday to immediately address Syria’s “massacre.
“It is time for the UN Security Council to assume responsibility... by convening immediately to reach a clear deterrent decision that ends the humanitarian tragedy,” said Foreign Minister Prince Saud al-Faisal. “We ask EU foreign ministers meeting today in Brussels (to discuss the Egyptian crisis) to have this humanitarian catastrophe as the main topic of their talks,” he told AFP.
French President Francois Hollande is calling on UN inspectors to visit the site of an alleged chemical weapons attack outside Damascus, government spokeswoman Najat Vallaud-Belkacem said Wednesday. During a cabinet session, Hollande “announced his intention to ask the UN to visit the site of the attack and to proceed with an investigation so that all light can be shed” on the incident, she told reporters.
“Several opposition groups have indicated that the army today carried out an attack against rebel suburbs of Damascus using neurotoxic gas,” Vallaud-Belkacem said. “This information obviously requires verification and confirmation.”
Foreign Secretary William Hague said on Wednesday that Britain would refer Syrian opposition claims that hundreds of people were killed in a chemical weapons strike to the UN Security Council.
Hague said he was “deeply concerned” by the reports and said if they were proved they would mark a “shocking escalation”.
“These reports are uncorroborated and we are urgently seeking more information. But it is clear that if they are verified, it would mark a shocking escalation in the use of chemical weapons in Syria. “Those who order the use of chemical weapons, and those who use them, should be in no doubt that we will work in every way we can to hold them to account.”
But Russia on Wednesday called Syrian opposition claims a “premeditated provocation.”
The foreign ministry stressed that the reports were issued just as a UN chemical weapons inspection team had arrived in Syria and noted that “this makes us think that we are once again dealing with a premeditated provocation.”
The foreign ministry said the claims were first reported “by partisan regional media all at once, as if by command” and argued that previous such reports had proven false.
Moscow has defended Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s regime throughout the conflict and only accused his opponents of using chemical arms.
The Russian ministry statement said the opposition appeared to be trying to undermine the chances of all sides agreeing to sit down for peace negotiations first mooted by Moscow and Washington in May.
Russia added that it was now “important to conduct an objective and professional investigation into what occurred.”