US calls off Russia talks on Syria

The US State Department has said it is cancelling a meeting with Russian diplomats on Syria this week.

The meeting at The Hague was about setting up an international conference to find a political resolution to the Syrian crisis.

But a senior State Department official said early today that the meeting between under secretary Wendy Sherman and US ambassador to Syria Robert Ford with their Russian counterparts was cancelled because of the US review about the alleged use of chemical weapons in Syria.

The US says it has evidence that chemical weapons were very likely used by the government of Bashar Assad and the official said the meeting would be rescheduled because a political solution was still needed in Syria.

Meanwhile, United Nations experts have collected samples and evidence from Syrian doctors and victims of the alleged chemical weapons attack, following a treacherous journey through government and rebel-held territory, where their convoy was hit by snipers.

As Western powers stepped up calls for swift military action, Assad’s government vowed to defend itself against any international attack, warning that such an intervention would ignite turmoil across the region.

Syria’s civil war that has killed more than 100,000 people since Assad cracked down on Arab Spring-inspired protesters in March 2011 has been increasingly defined by sectarian killings between the Sunni-led rebellion and Assad’s regime, dominated by Alawites, an offshoot of Shiite Islam.

It would essentially pit the US and regional allies Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Qatar in a proxy war against Iran, which is providing weapons to the Syrian government’s counter-uprising along with Hezbollah, the militant Lebanese group that also has aided Assad’s forces militarily.

Deputy foreign minister Faysal Mikdad said such an attack would trigger “chaos in the entire world”.

“If individual countries want to pursue aggressive and adventurous policies, the natural answer ... would be that Syria, which has been fighting against terrorism for almost three years, will also defend itself against any international attack,” he added.

Assad told a Russian newspaper that any military campaign against his country was destined to fail.

It is also unclear what US action would mean for relations with Russia, which warned against the use of force not sanctioned by the UN Security Council, calling it “a crude violation of international law”.

Support for some sort of international military response is likely to grow if it is confirmed that Assad’s regime was responsible for the August 21 attack in the Damascus suburbs that activists say killed hundreds of people. The group Doctors Without Borders put the death toll at 355.

US secretary of state John Kerry said chemical weapons were used in Syria and he accused Assad’s regime of destroying evidence. He said the US had additional information about the attack and would make it public in the days ahead.

“The indiscriminate slaughter of civilians, the killing of women and children and innocent bystanders by chemical weapons is a moral obscenity. By any standard, it is inexcusable and – despite the excuses and equivocations that some have manufactured – it is undeniable,” said Mr Kerry.

“This international norm cannot be violated without consequences.”

Assad has denied launching a chemical attack, blaming the rebels instead, and has authorised a UN team of experts currently in Syria to investigate, although the US said it was a step that came “too late to be credible”.

Snipers opened fire on the UN convoy, hitting one of the vehicles carrying a team on its way to investigate the incident.

Martin Nesirky, a spokesman for UN secretary general Ban Ki-moon, said one of the UN vehicles was “deliberately shot at multiple times” in the buffer zone between rebel and government-controlled territory, adding that the team was safe.

Mr Ban said he had instructed UN disarmament chief Angela Kane in Damascus “to register a strong complaint” with both the Syrian government and opposition representatives for the convoy attack.

The Syrian government said its forces provided security for the team until it reached a position controlled by the rebels, where the government claimed the sniper attack occurred. The main Syrian opposition group in exile, the Syrian National Coalition, said members of a pro-government militia known as the Popular Committees fired at the UN team to prevent it from going in.

The rebel coalition said the shots occurred near the final checkpoint between rebel and regime-controlled areas, calling it an attempt “to intimidate the UN team and prevent it from discovering the truth about Assad’s chemical weapons attack against civilians”.

Activists said the inspectors eventually arrived in Moadamiyeh, a western suburb of Damascus and one of the areas where the alleged chemical attack occurred.

Wassim al-Ahmad, a member of the Moadamiyeh local authority, said five UN investigators spent three hours at a makeshift hospital meeting with doctors and victims still suffering symptoms from the alleged chemical attack, taking blood, hair and tissue samples before returning to Damascus.

“They are late. They came six days late,” he said, referring to the time it took the UN team to arrive. “All the people have already been buried.”

In videos uploaded by the Moadamiyeh media office, UN inspectors in blue helmets and body armour were seen interviewing hospital patients.

“After the shells landed, I went downstairs and ... felt dizzy. I fell down, nauseous. Everything became distorted,” one bearded man was seen telling the UN official.

One video showed a man lying on a stretcher in the presence of UN experts and doctors in the room, his legs twitching uncontrollably. In another, a UN expert was seen conducting tests on a missile.

The US, France, Britain and Israel said a military response against the Syrian regime should be an option and Germany suggested for the first time it may support the use of force if a chemical weapons attack is confirmed.

US defence secretary Chuck Hagel said the Obama administration “is considering all different options” and that “if there is any action taken, it will be in concert with the international community and within the framework of a legal justification”.

French foreign minister Laurent Fabius said: “All the options are open. The only option that I can’t imagine would be to do nothing.”

But Russia said Western nations calling for military action had no proof the Syrian government was behind any chemical attacks and foreign minister Sergey Lavrov said countries calling for military action had assumed the role of “both investigators and the UN Security Council” in probing the incident.