U.S. can’t cross back over the Syria-chemical weapons ‘red line,’ says expert

VANCOUVER – Foreign ministers from a number of Western countries have said there’s little doubt the Syrian government launched a lethal chemical weapons attack on its own people last Wednesday.

Doctors Without Borders said the death toll from the alleged attack is more than 350 people and thousands more were injured – a “moral obscenity,” according to U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry.

Kerry didn’t make any clear statements Monday on whether military action is on the table, but he did issue his starkest comments yet that there must be a response and the regime of President Bashar al-Assad had to be held accountable.

“The indiscriminate slaughter of civilians, the killing of women and children and innocent bystanders by chemical weapons is a moral obscenity. By any standard, it is inexcusable,” he said from Washington.

Read more: Kerry says chemical weapons were used in Syria; US considers military options

Officials in many countries are waiting for the U.S. to make a concrete decision on what the next move will be, whether it’s military intervention or something else.

WATCH: United States ‘appalled’ by alleged chemical weapons use in Syria

But a chemical weapons expert at the Royal Military College of Canada said there may be no other option than taking action against the Syrian regime, now that U.S. President Barack Obama‘s “red Line” has already been crossed.

“If the West doesn’t find a way to show to the world that it can actually enforce the international norm against chemical weapons or even live up to its own threats about red lines, then what will future red lines mean,” Dr. Walter Dorn said in phone interview with Global News.

He said there’s no doubt chemical weapons were used and little chance it wasn’t the Syrian government that launched the attack.

“The evidence points the finger pretty strongly at the Assad regime… because of the scale of the use of chemical weapons. There were 10 different sites hit in almost the same time between 2 a.m. and 3 a.m.,” Dorn explained.

He also noted the place hit – the Damascus suburbs in Eastern Ghouta – was a rebel stronghold.

“I think they were cornered,” Dorn said.

There has been concern the Syrian government has tried to thwart the efforts of a UN inspection team, which had its convoy fired on Monday morning while travelling to conduct an investigation into the reported attack.

The team arrived in the country last week, just days before the alleged assault, to investigate previous reports of chemical attacks.

The Syrian government did not allow the inspectors to head to the Damascus suburb until Monday.

Officials such as Canada’s Foreign Minister John Baird believed the delay could put evidence at risk of degradation.

Read more: Baird condemns ‘abhorrent’ attack on UN inspectors in Syria

But, Dorn said that’s not likely just yet.

“The bigger concern is that the Syrian government, which may capture some of that territory, will try to wash it down and deliberately sanitize it, he said. “Or, even worse, tamper with the evidence to try to make it look like it was the rebels who did it.”

The Assad regime, with the backing of Russia, attests it was not responsible and has pointed the finger at the rebels.

“I don’t have any doubts that it will be said that the firing came from the other side. But all this is moving in one direction and doesn’t inspire optimism,” Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said.

Lavrov compared the current situation to the lead-up to the 2003 Iraq invasion, when U.S. and British urged, and later carried out, an invasion based on claims the government of Saddam Hussein was harbouring weapons of mass destruction.

Lavrov said any action that isn’t sanctioned by the UN Security Council – on which Russia sits and has veto power – would be “a crude violation of international law.”

For our full coverage of the Syria crisis, click here

*With files from The Associated Press

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