UN confirms use of sarin gas in attack in Syria.
Inspectors concluded there was "clear and convincing" evidence of the use of sarin gas in the attack near Damascus, Syria, last August, "on a relatively large scale"; under threat of war from the US, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad pledged to send the necessary technical documents to adhere to the 1993 convention on the prohibition of these weapons.
From Agência Brasil*
Brasilia - United Nations (UN) inspectors concluded there was "clear and convincing" evidence of the use of sarin gas in the attack near Damascus, Syria, last August. The information is part of the report released today (16) by the organization. According to the document, chemical weapons were used "on a relatively large scale" in the Syrian civil war, which has been ongoing for 30 months.
According to the UN commission of inquiry into violations in Syria, 14 cases of chemical weapons attacks committed since September 2011 are being investigated. The commission's previous report mentioned four cases, two in March and two in April. The commission of inquiry did not specify the dates of the last ten cases, only stating that the 14 attacks were recorded since the beginning of the investigators' mandate in September 2011.
Having failed to obtain authorization to travel to Syria, the commission of inquiry hopes to receive permission from Damascus to visit the sites of the alleged 14 attacks and establish, as far as possible, the identity of those responsible.
Accused by several countries of carrying out a chemical attack on August 21st near Damascus, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad pledged on September 12th to send the UN and the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) the technical documents necessary to adhere to the 1993 convention on the prohibition of such weapons.
On the other hand, after three days of negotiations in Geneva, US Secretary of State John Kerry and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov reached an agreement on Saturday on a plan to destroy Syria's chemical arsenal by the middle of next year. This agreement, which the Assad regime promised to respect, averted an immediate threat of punitive attacks against Syria made by the United States and France.
* With information from the Lusa news agency
Edited by: Davi Oliveira