Turkey said today that any use of chemical weapons by Syrian President Bashar al-Assad would “take the crisis to another level”, but remained cautious about any foreign military intervention in the conflict on its border.
Earlier today British prime minister David Cameron said there is "limited but growing evidence" that chemical weapons have been used in Syria's civil war. Mr Cameron said he agreed with US President Barack Obama that the issue was a "red line", but said it was unlikely that it would lead to British troops on the ground in Syria.
Today Turkish foreign ministry spokesman Levent Gumrukcu said “We have been hearing allegations of the use of chemical weapons for quite some time now and these new findings take things to another level. They are very alarming,” .
"Since the very first reports of chemical weapons being used in Syria emerged we have been asking for a thorough investigation by the United Nations to substantiate these reports. However, the Syrian regime has not allowed this."
Syria, which has so far denied access to U.N. investigators because of a dispute over their remit, denies firing chemical weapons and accuses anti-Assad rebels of using them.
“This has been done by organisations, including al Qaeda, which threatened to use chemical weapons against Syria. They have carried out their threat near Aleppo. There were victims,” Syrian Information Minister Omran al-Zoubi said in Moscow. “The Syrian army does not have chemical weapons,” Interfax news agency quoted Zoubi as saying.
A once-fervent advocate of foreign intervention in Syria, Turkey has grown increasingly frustrated with the fractured opposition to Assad and with international disunity. Asked whether Turkey would allow foreign military action in Syria from its soil, Gumrukcu said the facts about chemical weapons usage needed to be substantiated first.
The European Union also responded cautiously, saying it hoped the United Nations would be able to send its investigating mission to Syria to check for chemical weapons use.
“We are still monitoring this along with our international partners to see what has really happened because it doesn’t seem entirely clear at this point in time,” said Michael Mann, a spokesman for EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton.
“We’ve seen that the regime in Syria doesn’t seem to have much respect for human life, but we can’t be definitive on this until we see definitive evidence,” Mr Mann said.
Speaking on BBC Breakfas this morning, Mr Cameron said: “It is very disturbing what we are seeing. It’s limited evidence but there’s growing evidence that we have seen too of the use of chemical weapons, probably by the regime.
“It is extremely serious, this is a war crime, and we should take it very seriously.”
Mr Cameron said they were trying not to make the mistake of “rushing into print” and were working to consider and verify the evidence with Britain’s allies.
“But this is extremely serious, and I think what President Obama said was absolutely right — that this should form for the international community a red line for us to do more.
“I have always been keen for us to do more. We are working with the opposition, we want our allies and partners to do more with us to shape that opposition to make sure we are supporting people with good motives who want a good outcome, to put pressure on that regime so we can bring it to an end.”
Asked if there could be troops on the ground in Syria, Mr Cameron said: “I don’t want to see that and I don’t think that is likely to happen, but I think we can step up the pressure on the regime, work with our partners, work with the opposition in order to bring about the right outcome.
“But we need to go on gathering this evidence and also to send a very clear warning to the Syrian regime about these appalling actions.”
He said intervention was already under way through measures such as trade embargoes, sanctions and travel bans.
“The question is how do we step up the pressure and, in my view, what we need to do — and we’re doing some of this already — is shape that opposition, work with them, train them, mentor them, help them, so that we put the pressure on the regime and so what we can bring this to an end.
Both London and Washington have called on Bashar al-Assad to allow United Nations inspectors to carry out a full investigation to establish what had happened.
Last night the White House said the US intelligence community had assessed with "varying degrees of confidence" that chemical weapons had been used by the regime on a "small scale".
The weapons are believed to include the deadly nerve agent sarin.
It is understood that samples smuggled out of Syria were analysed by the Defence Science and Technology Laboratory at Porton Down in Wiltshire.
In a letter to senior US senators, White House legislative director Miguel Rodriguez said they needed to build on the evidence — which included "physiological samples" — in order to establish "credible and corroborated facts".
Wires