The United States has evidence that the chemical weapon sarin has been used in Syria on a small scale, Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel said Thursday.
But numerous questions remain about the origins of the chemical and what effect its apparent use could have on the ongoing Syrian civil war and international involvement in it.
When asked whether the intelligence community’s conclusion pushed the situation across President Barack Obama’s “red line” that could trigger more U.S. involvement in the war, Hagel said it’s too soon to say.
“We need all the facts. We need all the information,” he said. “What I’ve just given you is what our intelligence community has said they know. As I also said, they are still assessing, and they are still looking at what happened, who was responsible and the other specifics that we’ll need.”
In a letter sent to lawmakers before Hagel’s announcement, the White House said that intelligence analysts have concluded “with varying degrees of confidence that the Syrian regime has used chemical weapons on a small scale in Syria, specifically the chemical agent sarin.”
The White House cautioned that the “chain of custody” of the chemicals was not clear and that intelligence analysts could not confirm the circumstances under which the sarin was used, including the role of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s regime.
Read the letter to Sen. Carl Levin (PDF)
But, the letter said, “we do believe that any use of chemical weapons in Syria would very likely have originated with the Assad regime.”
The Syrian government has been battling a rebellion for more than two years, bringing international condemnation of the regime and pleas for greater international assistance.
The United Nations estimated in February that more than 70,000 people had died since the conflict began.
http://edition.cnn.com
Tags: international condemnation, Syrian government has been battling, United Nations estimated in February
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