Kerry asks Syrian counterpart about alleged chemical arms attack Hide Details

Kerry asks Syrian counterpart about alleged chemical arms attack
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US Secretary of State John Kerry has spoken with Syria's foreign minister seeking clarifications about an alleged chemical weapons attack last week that reportedly killed hundreds of civilians. 


An American official said Kerry discussed the attack on rebel-held areas near Damascus with Walid Al-Muallem a day after Wednesday's incident, "to make clear that if, as they claimed, the Syrian regime has nothing to hide, it should have allowed immediate and unimpeded access to the site rather than continuing to attack the affected area to block access and destroy evidence."

Kerry also made a series of calls about evidence relating to the attack, speaking Saturday to the foreign ministers of Jordan, Turkey and Saudi Arabia, as well as the secretary-general of the Arab League. 

The French news agency quotes the American official as saying that in all these calls, Kerry emphasized the importance of quickly determining the facts and underscored the seriousness and gravity of any chemical weapons use.

US President Barack Obama is under mounting pressure to act following reports of the alleged chemical arms attack, with the Doctor Without Borders group saying it had killed 355 people due to what was termed "neurotoxic" symptoms. Syrian opposition groups say the attack was carried out by Syrian President Bashar Assad's forces and that it killed more than 1,000 people. 

Obama discussed the situation in Syria by telephone with British Prime Minister David Cameron. The White House said it was Obama's first known conversation with a foreign leader about Syria since the reports on the alleged chemical arms attack in a suburb of Damascus. The White House said the two leaders expressed "grave concern" about the reported chemical weapons use, which both of their countries oppose. A statement from Cameron's office said the prime minister and Obama are concerned by "increasing signs" that this was a "significant chemical weapons attack" by the Syrian government against its people. 

Obama and Cameron "reiterated that significant use of chemical weapons would merit a serious response from the international community according to the statement. 

Obama on Saturday met with his national security team and received a detailed review of the range of options he has requested for the US and its international partners if the fact-finding process concludes that Syrian leader Assad engaged in deadly chemical warfare. This, as the Obama administration prepared for a possible military response by moving naval forces closer to Syria.
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US positioning forces in region as Obama consults on Syria
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US President Barack Obama is convening national security advisers at the White House this weekend to discuss Syria options. A US official quoted by Reuters cautioned against expecting that any final decision might come out of this next round of discussions. 

The report comes as U.S. Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel has strongly suggested that the United States is positioning naval forces and assets in anticipation of any decision by Obama to order military action on Syria after apparent chemical weapons use. 

Hagel's comments to reporters traveling with him to Malaysia came after a defense official said the navy would expand its presence in the Mediterranean with a fourth cruise-missile armed warship because of the escalating civil conflict in Syria. 

Hagel said Obama had asked the defense department for options on Syria, where an apparent poison gas attack has mounted pressure on the United States to intervene in Syria's two-and-a-half year-old civil war. 

"The Defense Department has responsibility to provide the president with options for all contingencies, and that requires position our forces, position our assets, to be able to carry out different options - whatever the president might choose," he said. 

Asked whether it was fair to report that the US had moved assets, Hagel said that is not what he said -- what he said is that the US is always having to prepare. 

Hagel also said he believed the international community was moving swiftly in getting the facts about what took place. Wednesday's reported attack killed at least 100 people in a Damascus suburb. According to American and European security sources, US and allied intelligence agencies' have made a preliminary assessment that chemical weapons were used by Syrian forces in the attack near Damascus, likely with high-level approval from the government of President Bashar Assad, according Reuters.

US President Obama has stressed that chemical weapons use is a "red line" for him in the conflict. 

Earlier, a defense official said the USS Mahan had finished its deployment and was due to head back to its home base in the United States, but the commander of the US Sixth Fleet had decided to keep the ship in the region. 

The official stressed the Navy had received no orders to prepare for any military operations in Syria. 

In another development, the United Nations' top disarmament official, Angela Kane, is due to arrive in Damascus on Saturday to push for access to the site of this week's alleged chemical weapons attack. Kane was involved in contacts leading up to the current mission of UN inspectors in Syria, who are looking into allegations of three previous incidents of chemical arms use.


In another development, IDF Chief of Staff Benny Gantz spoke Friday by telephone with his American counterpart, Joint Chiefs of Staff, Martin Dempsey. The two discussed the situation in Lebanon and Syria.
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