The joint UN-OPCW team charged with investigating a pair of chemical weapons attacks in Syria are facing growing political pressure from myriad different governments wth different interests, according to the team’s head, Edmond Mulet.
Mulet said that “more than one and probably less than 20” countries have contacted with team, demanding that they alter the nature of their probe and warning that they won’t accept the probe’s ultimate conclusions unless they are in keeping with a specific vision.
He went on to ask the UN Security Council to “please let us do our work,” saying the team needs to maintain independence and impartiality in the investigation. It was this effort to stay impartial that led the initial OPCW teams not to even hazard a guess as to who was responsible for the attacks.
The joint team, however, is empowered to assign blame, and several major nations have very serious interests in seeing that blame thrown in certain directions. The US, for example, would look really bad if the April chemical attack is not pinned on the Syrian government, since they attacked Syria over that incident.
Being “empowered” to assign blame is not the same as being “required” to assign blame.
If they don’t want to be criticised then they should VISIT THE FRIGGIN “ATTACK” SITE AND PROPERLY INVESTIGATE THE CHAIN OF CUSTODY OF ALL TERRORIST-SUPPLIED “EVIDENCE”.
If they are honest, they will write a report that there was a chemical weapons incident involving a Sarin like compound and exposure to other agents without assigning blame. Basically confirm what they have already said.
Since they didn’t visit the grounds, they can’t determine the dispersal mechanism or origin. Was it the crater shown on social media or a warehouse as postulated by the Syrians / Russians? An onsite inspection would have settled the matter.
Was it an air dropped munition or a ground based explosion? Again an onsite inspection would have settled the matter.
Do the Syrians have chemical weapons at the airbase? An onsite inspection would have settled the matter.
Since none of this was done then it’s impossible to reach further conclusions.
“…involving a Sarin like compound…”
Even that cannot be ascertained now.