Monday, May 6, 2013

Syrian Rebels Suspected of Using Sarin Gas – Inquiry Commissioner

But Commission Not Reached Conclusive Findings
Carla Del Ponte, a member of UN commission of inquiry on Syria, told Swiss TV on Sunday that the commission's preliminary findings indicate that the Syrian rebel used the sarin gas.

“According to their (Commission) report of last week, which I have seen, there are strong, concrete suspicions but not yet incontrovertible proof of the use of sarin gas, from the way the victims were treated,” Del Ponte said. “I was a little bit stupefied by the first indications we got... they were about the use of nerve gas by the opposition,” she added. (BBC, 6 May)

Today, the UN Independent International Commission of Inquiry on Syria issued a statement saying it wished to clarify that it had “not reached conclusive findings as to the use of chemical weapons in Syria by any parties to the conflict.” (BBC, 6 May)

Sarin, a colorless, odorless gas which can cause respiratory arrest and death, is classed as a weapon of mass destruction and is banned under international law.

Photo credit: UN Commissioner of Inquiry on Syria Carla Del Ponte (BBC)

26 comments:

Anonymous said...

http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=e3e_1367830744 --- Terrorists in Syria are using WMDs.

Anonymous said...

Let see what US will do about his buddies ;)

Anonymous said...

Now this is an interesting turn of events...

Anonymous said...

It is a good example of chhob e du sar goh :)

Anonymous said...

This is not surprising. The whole world has already seen what kind of people those so-called "protesters" and "opposition" in Syria, really are. Terrorists who are mostly non-Syrian and have been busy chopping off heads, persecuting minorities and following extreme, Islamic ideology. They even filmed themselves testing chemical weapons and bragging about it. That is the reality of the so-called "rebels".

Anonymous said...

These "rebels' are US/Zionist supported terrorists and have been responsible for 99% of the atrocities and mass civilian murder, however, these US darlings will keep on butchering people under the guise of "democracy'. The Zionist controlled UN lapdogs will DO NOTHING but attribute the blame for gas use on Assad and the Syrian military. Sadly we live in a world of LIES where might is right and the law of the jungle applies and lambs are ritually slaughtered in the name of "international community".

mat said...

The words 'upon desperation' will best suit those U.S./Israel/West/Middle East-backed,-supported, and -aided unwanted terrorists on the soils of Syria.

Anonymous said...

A scary thought.. for the west,oh well if some captured syrian chemical weapons are used on a western target the west will only have itself to blame and I for one will feel little sympathy.You reap what you sow

Anonymous said...

Al-Ikhbariya announced that the Syrian government had given a green light to Palestinian groups to conduct “operations” against Israeli targets on the Zionist occupied Golan Heights. Hezbollah-linked media, meanwhile, reported that Lebanon and Syria had established “popular committees” ready to fight Israel in the region.

The Kuwaiti daily newspaper Al Rai, quoting sources close to Assad, reported that the Syrian leader had used Russian backchannels to tell the Israelis that Damascus would react if Israel struck Syria again. Syria, they said, would consider any such act a declaration of war and would contemplate firing surface-to-surface and surface-to-air missiles at Israel.

Syrian sources told a range of media outlets that Damascus had deployed missile batteries aimed at Israel that could respond to any further Israeli actions.

Anonymous said...

After claims about Iraq's WMD and cooperation with Al-Queda, the US and the West have lost their credibility to be solitary World's problem solvers.
Nelson Mandela, not long ago, stated that the US is the biggest threat to the world peace...

There was a picture with several dead animals, and agencies- symphatetic to terrorist's causes informed that they were poisoned- killed by Assad's chemical weapons. Somehow those animals were several feet apart from each other, and my conclusion could be that it had been staged.
In the past terrorists staged events for "journalists", where they brought bodies from different location and claimed that there was a mass murder by Assad's "regime"; but some of those murdered were relatives of Syrian legislators !!

It was the only way to fake chemical weapons, in order to justify and bring active Western military involvment.

Some blood samples with toxins could be laced with those toxins or they could find volunteers who, like suicide bombers, were willing to be (injected) tainted with chemicals, in order to make contribution to that "chemical weapons" provocation.
Or that it was simplier, by the way that terrorist launched their own chemical shell on that places for their propaganda purposes.

One of Iraquis, who testified before the war about the WMD, after years acknowledged that he was pressured to testify that way because it was a condition to get priviledges in the West.

B.M.A said...

USKOWI!
how does it look when democratic liberators turn on unconventional tactics to force a victory,these are supposed to be democratic Syrians fighting arcoding to the rules to remove a dictator!.

Nader Uskowi said...

B.M.A.,

Opposition in countries under years of dictatorship encompasses a wide array of groups and individuals, representing wide spectrum of political and ideological leanings that come out in open when the government is weakened. Some groups within the opposition might be even more reactionary than the government itself, opposing it not on ideals of democracy and equality, but wanting to bring to power a regime more restrictive on individual freedoms, etc. We are seeing this trend in Syria, and let’s really hope those reactionary groups will not dominate the next government if and when Assad is gone. I can say this from personal experience after seeing what happened to the Iranian revolution some 35 years ago.

Anonymous said...

http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=b8a_1367923859 --- Syria prepares to strike Israel, Iran declares its support.

Anonymous said...

More hot air from Iran and Syria. The pathetic cretin Salehi was publicly humiliated by the Jordanian FM in a press conference yesterday. It is so sad to see Iran's international stock sink to the lowest when even worthless puppet colonies like Jordan dismiss its hollow threats and make mockery of it. Iran has only one choice: PUT UP OR SHUT UP!

Anonymous said...

B.M.A May 7, 2013 at 4:55 AM
And if you believe that,Then I have some nigerian investment opportunities that I believe you would be interested in

B.M.A said...

Uskowi-
you've been very supportive of the whole exercise to remove ASSAD by all means necessary.But the sad thing on your part is swallowing the western line and following their steps when they promised the world that indeed SYRIA WILL FALL IN A MONTH OR later
many rational minds promised that with Hezbollah and Iran behind ,it would be very hard..-today the whole thing is quickly turning into a hell of sorts for the rats and some latest reports indicate that the rats ARE DIVIDED MORE THAN ever and their moral is dwindling as the Syrian arms makes some important head ways!.

question one-
Will you for a while admit or accept Iran's promises seeing that it is only the noble Nation of Iran that promised the world in daylight that the rats won't win in Syria and we are seeing exactly that!.

question two-
as it is evident that the rats used gas in a desperate attempt to force some victory-do you think the Syrian masses support a group of murderous men fetched from far away lands to commit atrocities in their Nation in the name of removing a 'dictator',?and if the Syrian people are behind their leader as evidenced by the events there,is this not a democratic choice on their part?- or is it the same old song song 'democracy is only democracy if it imposed by the west?

question three-
indeed the Syrian people are behind their leader, the military too is solidly behind their leader!-So what is the UN doing?, where is the security council? where is the A.I ?- is not very bad on the part of the UN to allow a people to be killed, A Nation to be destroyed because of their democratic choice..

QUESTION four- seems Syrians are punished like the Iranian people! their cardinal sin being that they are behind a leadership unwanted by the west though it is their democratic right to do so! or do you have some other translations?

Nader Uskowi said...

Branding all the opposition as rats, and unable, or probably unwilling, to differentiate between the real opposition and the extremist terrorist groups active in the country, has always been the tactic of the reactionaries, including the extremists in Damascus and Tehran. All your questions have the same underlying premise, believing that all opposition groups are terrorists, and they are not as such questions but statements of right-wing nature.

My views on Syria have been clearly stated on this blog: Assad and his father has ruled over that country for more than four decades as dictators and the Syrian people deserve a more democratic regime. Assad, unlike his colleagues in Egypt and Tunisia, could not hear the people’s demands, which were first expressed through peaceful marches and demonstrations in the cities throughout Syria, and by putting his killing machine in action, instead of listening to the aspirations of his people, radicalized the movement and helped open the way for extremists and terrorists to increasingly get involved in the civil war and make a mess in the process. The best solution for the people is that extremists on both sides, Assad as well as terrorist groups, be forced out to allow a rational process to take shape, bringing peace and tranquility to the nation.

B.M.A said...

-Uskowi-
indeed you deserve a turban on your head and be a resident cleric in a mosque leading the Friday prayers and giving summons torching on humanity!.-this is what you are saying-'The best solution for the people is that extremists on both sides, Assad as well as terrorists groups, be forced out to allow a ration process to take shape, bringing peace and tranquility to the nation!.'-

Question one=
-Who then can force these murderous gangs to lay down their arms and pave way for a peaceful solution? we have heard Assad promising to listen ,don't you see the security council is failing on its obligations by closing its eyes on the developments in Syria- @ JUSTIFY- its deafening silence!.

Question two=
-we all know, that the west is helping the rats there realize their dream of a democratic Syria,
but sir why only Syria? why not Bahrain or Saudi Arabia?- Im saying this because Saudi and Bahrain share some common problems.why do the beacon of democracy support the destruction of Syria,bizarre killings, all in the Name of removing a Dictator but at the same time embrace ,hug,and feel at home with another long serving dictatorship in the same region- @ JUSTIFY- this selective application of foreign policy on the part of the West led by the beacon of democracy!.

Question three=
-YOUR views are truly honest,how we all wish you had a say in the UN security council!.Iam very sure any rational person would support your views- @ so how do you JUSTIFY the latest push by the west to supply the fighters with fresh high-tech arms to continue the onslaught effectively running away from your wishes that peace and tranquility be realized in Syria.

Anonymous said...

Actually now even according to US/Zionist "western" media most of the rebels are indeed alCIAda affiliated Takfiri scum as that is upsetting the Syrians who in the beginning wanted a real democracy and less rigid Assad regime. Now I believe most secular Syrians regardless of their religious or sectarian background are scared of the Takfiri terrorists, the vast majority of whom are foreign mercenaries. Even the Turkey based FSA is having serious concerns:

Free Syrian Army rebels defect to Islamist group Jabhat al-Nusra

The well-resourced organisation, which is linked to al-Qaida, is luring many anti-Assad fighters away, say brigade commanders

Syria's main armed opposition group, the Free Syrian Army (FSA), is losing fighters and capabilities to Jabhat al-Nusra, an Islamist organisation with links to al-Qaida that is emerging as the best-equipped, financed and motivated force fighting Bashar al-Assad's regime.

Evidence of the growing strength of al-Nusra, gathered from Guardian interviews with FSA commanders across Syria, underlines the dilemma for the US, Britain and other governments as they ponder the question of arming anti-Assad rebels.Illustrating their plight, FSA commanders say that entire units have gone over to al-Nusra while others have lost a quarter or more of their strength to them recently.

"Fighters feel proud to join al-Nusra because that means power and influence," said Abu Ahmed, a former teacher from Deir Hafer who now commands an FSA brigade in the countryside near Aleppo. "Al-Nusra fighters rarely withdraw for shortage of ammunition or fighters and they leave their target only after liberating it," he added. "They compete to carry out martyrdom [suicide] operations."The FSA's shortage of weapons and other resources compared with Jabhat al-Nusra is a recurrent theme. The loss of Khirbet Ghazaleh, a key junction near Dera'a in southern Syria, was blamed on Wednesday on a lack of weapons its defenders had hoped would be delivered from Jordan.

"If you join al-Nusra, there is always a gun for you but many of the FSA brigades can't even provide bullets for their fighters," complained Abu Tamim, an FSA man who joined Jabhat al-Nusra in Idlib province. "My nephew is in Egypt, he wants to come to Syria to fight but he doesn't have enough money. Al-Nusra told him: 'Come and we will even pay your flight tickets.' He is coming to fight with al-Nusra because he does not have any other way."


http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/may/08/free-syrian-army-rebels-defect-islamist-group


Anonymous said...

I worked for Carla and her department during the aftermath of the Balkan era. She is a difficult person yet untouchable.

She never lies, and she probably tried to disarm the pro Israeli war parties and spoke of what we all think and know.

She managed to avoid another Iraq probably with her bravery.

Azari by fortune and Iranian by Grace of God
Dariush London

Anonymous said...

Yes Dariush, her report and analysis is very objective. It is quite obvious that the US/Zionist hyena coalition was trying to use the "gas use" fake claim to further justify a case of aggression against Syria, however, Carla diffused the whole false flag and rightly blamed the Takfiri terrorists for using Sarin and other chemical weapons. US/Zionists are in bind now as Syrian military has performed beyond expectations and now has literally wiped out the terrorists from all urban areas and secured he borders with Lebanon and Turkey. The next phase of the counter-terrorism strategy will be secure the main terrorist supply lines from Jordan from where the majority of the Takfiri scum and weapons originate. I think Jordan will pay a very heavy price in the long run as its fragile demographics and repressive police state will unravel. Palestinians already make up 60% of artificial Jordanian state and now these armed Takfiri thugs will turn on Jordan as Syrian military tighten their noose around them.

History has shown that wherever US stations its troops that country is engulfed in corruption, social malaise, war and total mayhem. Iraq,and Af-pak are glaring examples of US "assistance" and "democracy".

Anonymous said...

Assad’s forces defeat rebels at key stronghold near Jordan border inflicting fatal blows

NICOSIA — The Syrian Army has been rolling through rebel
strongholds in the south with unrelenting speed and determination.

On May 8, the Syrian Army advanced deep into the south near the border
with Jordan. Army units captured a southern town held by the rebels and
located on the main highway to Jordan. The government's lightening capture of Khirbet Ghazaleh capped a two-month Army offensive against the so-called Free Syrian Army and Islamist terrorist groups. The offensive included the siege of Khirbat, located in the Hauran Plain near Dera, as well as nightly shelling. At least 35 fighters were killed in the artillery and helicopter gunship attacks.

Opposition sources said FSA units, which comprised 1,000 fighters,
were chased out from Khirbat in complete disarray amid a shortage of weapons and low morale. They said Khirbat marked a major rebel stronghold that allowed FSA to maintain positions around Dera, a key target of the Syrian Army.

FSA has sought to expand the flow of weapons from neighboring Jordan,
which reinforced troops along the Syrian border. But the sources said the
rebel military leadership, controlled by Jordanian intelligence, failed to
send arms or supplies and were demoralized further by heavy Syrian air-strikes next to the Jordanian border. The emboldened and rearmed Syrian military is now in a position to launch hot pursuit missions into Jordan if the terrorists continue to use its training camps and weapons supply depots.

The sources acknowledged that the Syrian Army and security forces have
rolled back all rebel gains over the last year and inflicted severe losses. They said Assad forces were bolstered by advisers from Iran and seasoned Hizbullah fighters as well as new counter-insurgency equipment from Moscow and Teheran.

In a related development, a leading Al Qaida-aligned commander was
badly injured in a Syrian Army attack near Damascus. The Syrian Observatory for
Human Rights said Abu Mohammed Al Jawlani along with a large group of the Salafi Al-Nusra terrorists was targeted. He was the commander of Al Nusra Front for the "Protection of the Levant", and was severely injured in an precise air strike on May 8. The accuracy of the strike highlights real-time intelligence capability of the military or infiltration of rebel ranks by Syria's intelligence agencies.

Increasing number of demoralized rebels have abandoned their vehicles and weapons and have melted away in the teeming refugee camps of Jordan and Lebanon in face of the relentless Syrian onslaught.

Anonymous said...

Gentlemen, as predicted by the adults on this blog and elsewhere it is quite apparent that US/Zionist and their Takfiri alCIAda buddies are about to bite the dust as the Syrian military is tightening the noose and Russia, China and Iran are not about to let Syria fall to the US/Zionist axis of evil. Putin has publicly humiliated both the Zionist Kerry and the British poodle Cameron at Sochi.

Russia shows Cameron the door

BEIRUT (AP) -- Russia defended its sales of anti-aircraft systems to the regime of Syrian President Bashar Assad, just days after joining forces with the U.S. for a new push to end Syria's civil war through negotiations.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov avoided saying whether those sales included advanced S-300 batteries. Israel has asked Russia to cancel what it said was the imminent sale of the S-300 missiles, portrayed by U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry as destabilizing to Israel's security.

The S-300s would make it harder for the U.S. and other countries to even consider intervening militarily or enforcing a no-fly zone in Syria. The U.S. has urged Russia - an Assad ally along with China, Iran and the Lebanese Hezbollah militia - to cut off weapons supplies to Syria.

At the same time, Russia is going ahead with arms sales, the Russian foreign minister said, portraying the weapons as defensive.

"Russia has been selling for a long time, has signed contracts and is completing deliveries of technology that consists of anti-aircraft systems," Lavrov said Friday in Warsaw.

Existing contracts are not believed to include the S-300.

The Wall Street Journal earlier this week put that deal at $900 million for four batteries, six launchers and 144 operational missiles. The missiles have a range of 125 miles, the newspaper reported, citing Israeli-provided information, adding that the materiel would start arriving over the next three months.

The S-300 batteries can target manned planes, drones and incoming missiles, and would be a state-of-the-art upgrade of Syria's aging Soviet-supplied defense system.

Syrian special forces and the elite 4th Armored Division were preparing for an all out assault on the last remaining terrorist hideouts at Qusair. "It appears likely that this (the troop buildup) is in preparation for a large-scale attack to uproot the remaining armed Al-Nursa terrorists from Qusair". A local resident reported panic in remaining rebel ranks as the town appeared surrounded on three sides and the Syrian military providing a safe passage corridor for civilians to flee. Syrian helicopter gunships dropped leaflets warning the remaining civilians to flee before the bombing starts.

The Syrian military dropped leaflets over Qusair, urging rebel fighters to surrender or die, but did not set a deadline for them to do so, according to the office of the Homs governor. The Syrian military flushed with new weapons and buoyed by recent victories is on a rolling offensive against the last remaining rebel held pockets.

Rebels have lost ground in the area since a Hezbollah-backed government offensive there last month. The large scale Syrian offensive has decimated rebel ranks and demoralized them.

Bassam al-Dada, an official in the rebels' Free Syrian Army, said Friday that more pro-regime forces have been streaming to Qusair, a town of more than 20,000 people south of the city of Homs.

Highly mobile units of Hezbollah fighters have shelled the town, hitting the main water tank and filtration station, forcing the rebel fighters to flee, al-Dada said by phone from Turkey.

Qusair is important to the regime because the area links the capital of Damascus with the coastal region, where regime loyalists are concentrated. This includes Alawites, followers of Shiite Islam to which the Assad family also belongs. The rebellion against Assad is now largely driven by foreign Salafi fighters funded and armed by Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the Persian Gulf states. Jordan serves as the main training and logistics hub for the terrorist groups.

Anonymous said...

A good realistic article in the influential Foreign Policy magazine gives a good insight in how marginalized and weak the US has become in the new Asia centric multi-polar world. The US is now the most despised country globally, not to mention the Muslim world, its economy is bankrupt thanks to Zionist fanned lost wars and China is increasingly assertive on the global stage with soft power. Russia has found new confidence largely due to Putin's nationalistic policies and immense natural resources wealth. Russia is spending $700 billion revamping its armed forces and creating closer strategic alliances with China, Iran, Egypt and Syria. US is bogged down in the Af-Pak mess and literally bleeding to death with war costs now heading upwards of $ 10 billion a month.

US Foreign Policy is total disarray

These have been tough weeks for the Obama administration on foreign policy. On so many issues of consequence, the trajectories of real-world events have been running decidedly against the Obama policy line. If you had to pick a major foreign-policy issue where the United States is in better shape today than it was six months ago, which one would you pick? I am hard-pressed to think of one.

In other words, Obama is a buck-passer. You may or may not want a buck-passer conducting your foreign policy -- it matters greatly whether you have significant interests at stake and whether someone else is there to receive the buck. Obama is silent on this question, but if he pursued it he might realize that a sustained strategy of buck-passing creates the conditions for the emergence of a hostile peer rival. China and Russia seem to be filling the void.

http://shadow.foreignpolicy.com/posts/2013/05/10/confronting_syria_with_the_commander_in_chief_we_have


B.M.A said...

SUBHANALLAH!-may the Almighty bless our brothers and sisters in the IRANIAN defense industries!!

Anonymous said...

Indeed. The US/Zionist desperation is evident in the destabilization and false flags in southern Turkey now.