France released an intelligence report on Monday alleging chemical
weapons use by Syria's regime that dovetailed with similar U.S. claims,
as President Bashar Assad warned that any military strike against his
country would spark an uncontrollable regional war and spread "chaos and
extremism."
The verbal crossfire, including a rejection of the
Western allegations by longtime Syrian ally Russia, was part of frenzied
efforts on both sides to court international public opinion after
President Barack Obama said he would seek authorization from Congress
before launching any military action against Assad's regime.
In an
interview with French newspaper Le Figaro, Assad was quoted as saying
that Syria has challenged the U.S. and France to provide proof to
support their allegations, but that their leaders "have been incapable
of doing that, including before their own peoples."
"If the
Americans, the French or the British had a shred of proof, they would
have shown it beginning on the first day," he said, deriding Obama as
"weak" and having buckled to U.S. domestic political pressure.
"We believe that a strong man is one who prevents war, not one who inflames it," Assad said.
French
President Francois Hollande and Obama have been the two world leaders
most vocally calling for action against Assad's regime, accusing it of
carrying out a deadly chemical attack against rebel-held suburbs of
Damascus on Aug. 21.
The U.S. said it has proof that the Assad
regime is behind attacks that Washington claims killed at least 1,429
people, including more than 400 children. Those numbers are
significantly higher than the death toll of 355 provided by the aid
group Doctors Without Borders.
It has marked an intolerable escalation in a two-year civil war in Syria that has left some 100,000 people dead.
The
Syrian government denies the allegations, and blames opposition
fighters. In the Figaro interview, Assad questioned whether an attack
took place at all and refused to say whether his forces have chemical
weapons, as is widely believed.
If the U.S. and France strike,
"Everyone will lose control of the situation ... Chaos and extremism
will spread. The risk of a regional war exists," he added.
To
back up its case, the French government published a nine-page
intelligence synopsis Monday that concluded Assad's regime had launched
an attack on Aug. 21 involving a "massive use of chemical agents," and
could carry out similar strikes in the future.
In all, though, the
French report provided little new concrete evidence beyond what U.S.
officials provided over the weekend in Washington. Along with it, the
French Defense Ministry posted on its Web site six clips of amateur
video showing victims, some of which has already been widely available
online and in the international media.
In the Figaro interview,
Assad said "all the accusations are based on allegations of the
terrorists and on arbitrary videos posted on the Internet."
The
French report made no specific reference to the agencies involved or how
the intelligence was collected about the attack, aside from referring
to videos of the injured or killed, doctors' accounts, and "independent
evaluations" such as one from Paris-based humanitarian aid group Doctors
Without Borders three days after the attack.
A French government
official, speaking on condition of anonymity because he wasn't
authorized to speak about the matter because of its sensitivity, said
the analysis was written by the spy agency DGSE and the military
intelligence unit, DRM, and was based on satellite imagery, video
images, and on-the-ground sources — plus samples collected from the
alleged chemical attacks in April.
The assessment said it was
"very unlikely" that Syria's opposition had falsified images of
suffering children that turned up online. It also said intelligence
indicated the opposition "does not have the means to conduct such a
large attack with chemical agents."
Around the time of the attack,
Assad's regime feared a possible opposition strike on Damascus: "Our
evaluation is that the regime was looking to loosen the vice and secure
the strategic sites for the control of the capital," the report said.
The
synopsis also said French intelligence services had collected urine,
blood, soil and munitions samples from two attacks in April — in Saraqeb
and Jobar — that confirmed the use of sarin gas.
France is
"determined to take action against the use of chemical weapons by the
regime of Bashar Assad, and to dissuade it from doing so again," Prime
Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault said after hosting lawmakers to discuss the
intelligence on Syria. "This act cannot go without a response."
France
won't act alone and Hollande was "continuing his work of persuasion to
bring together a coalition," Ayrault said. French parliament will debate
the Syria issue Wednesday, but no vote is scheduled. The French
constitution doesn't require such a vote for Hollande, though he could
decide to call for one.
Russia,
which along with Iran has been a staunch supporter of Assad through the
conflict, brushed aside Western evidence of an alleged Syrian regime
role.
"What our American, British and French partners showed us in
the past and have showed just recently is absolutely unconvincing,"
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said Monday before the French
report was released. "And when you ask for more detailed proof they say
all of this is classified, so we cannot show this to you."
"There
was nothing specific there, no geographic coordinates, no names, no
proof that the tests were carried out by the professionals," he said,
without identifying which tests.
Russian President Vladimir Putin
proposed to send a delegation of Russian lawmakers to the U.S. to
discuss the situation in Syria with members of Congress. Two top Russian
legislators suggested that to Putin, pointing to polls that have shown
little support among Americans for armed intervention in Syria.
On
Sunday, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said Washington received new
physical evidence in the form of blood and hair samples that show sarin
gas was used in the attack. It wasn't immediately clear whether that
evidence had been shared with Russia.
U.N. chemical inspectors
toured the stricken areas last week, collecting biological and soil
samples. A U.N. statement said the team "worked around the clock" to
finalize preparations of the samples, which were shipped Monday
afternoon from The Hague and would reach their designated laboratories
"within hours," the statement said.
Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon
planned to brief the Security Council's 10 non-permanent members on the
Syria crisis Tuesday morning. Angela Kane, high representative for
disarmament affairs, planned a Tuesday briefing for member states that
requested the investigation of alleged chemical weapons use in the
Ghouta area outside Damascus on Aug. 21.
The Obama administration
has failed to bring together a broad international coalition in support
of military action, having so far only secured the support of France.
Britain's
Parliament narrowly voted against the country's participation in any
military strike last week, despite appeals by Prime Minister David
Cameron. The Arab League has stopped short of endorsing a Western strike
against Syria.
In an emergency meeting Sunday, the 22-state
League urged the United Nations and the international community to take
"deterrent" measures under international law to stop the Syrian regime's
crimes. Russia or China would likely veto any U.N. Security Council
resolution sanctioning a Western strike against Syria
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