United Nations Syrian President Bashar Al Assad marked his 48th birthday on September 11 by committing to join the Chemical Weapons Convention supervised by the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons. The decision came on the heels of a Russian initiative to prevent threatened US/French airstrikes against Syria in retaliation for Syrian troops' alleged use of WMDs on August 21. The US, UK and France claim a chemical WMD attack in the Damascus suburb of Ghouta was carried out by government forces against civilians,
Russia, as well as independent WMD experts- and confessions of some western backed 'rebels' themselves to western media- claim rebel extremists were to blame. A US/French military attack has been put on hold pending a United Nations investigation into the matter.
While the world breathed a sigh of relief at a war averted, machinations inside the UN present a more complex picture. Despite a UN investigation whose forensic inquiry was unfinished (and purportedly unseen by him), UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon told a closed meeting of the Women's International Forum (press forbidden), that the report's findings were "overwhelming" against Assad. Ban Ki-moon said Assad "carried out many crimes against humanity" and insisted there had to be "accountability". On UNEZ TV, he spoke of Syria's use of chemical weapons adding: "I can't say it publicly."
Inner City Press, who broke the story, got inconclusive answers when it asked UNSG spokesman Farhan Haq if Ban Ki-moon had leaked the report to France, since French media were full of similar "findings" long before the embargoed report's completion or release. It may further be asked: If France had such insider access, did they also have a role in slanting the report's intelligence?France, who has been among the most vocal proponents for funding, arming and training foreign extremists and Al Qaeda Jabhat Al Nusra mercenary forces to overthrow the Assad government, has issued several statements by Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius and French President Francois Hollande and their jihadis. Evoking the Iraq War, they called for a binding UN resolution allowing force if Syria does not disarm. "It is vital the threat of force stays on the table. For a (UN Security Council) resolution to be anything other than a get-out-of-jail-free card for the regime, it must be enforceable under Chapter 7," allowing military action.
On September 13 Secretary of State John Kerry told CNN: "We may still have to strike Syria" irregardless of its adherence to the chemical weapons treaty, and an unsourced Wall Street Journal piece emerged claiming Syria's elite Unit 450 — which is in charge of securing, mixing, and deploying chemical munitions — "has been moving stocks of poison gases and munitions to as many as 50 sites to make them harder for the U.S. to track". A reprise of charges leveled at Saddam's Elite Republican Guard?Are preparations for use of force against Syria already under way? Word around the UN is that the Department of Peacekeeping Operations (DPKO) is already engaged in planning for the aftermath of a US Coalition strike on Syria. (This writer has spoken with active duty US servicemen in Kansas and Missouri on standby for deployment to Syria.) Could the French again have advance information?
Herve Ladsous, a career French Foreign Service diplomat who was appointed by Ban Ki-moon at the height of the 'Arab Spring' campaign as UN Under-Secretary-General for Peacekeeping Operations would be chief coordinator of any such UN post-war operations in Syria. UNSG spokesman Farhan Haq stated that such UN activities are routine contingency preparations.
In other developments, Osama Bin Laden's "right-hand man", Ayman Zawahiri- whose brother Mohammad has been inside Syria coordinating Al Qaeda logistics- cited September 11 in a call for renewed attacks inside America.
