08/30/2013, 00.00
SYRIA -UN -US
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UN:' considerable ' evidence of use of chemical weapons. The U.S. increasingly alone

The British Parliament has rejected any intervention against Syria. Obama will choose a path " in the best interest to the United States." Tomorrow UN inspectors present evidence gathered in Damascus to Ban Ki -moon.

Damascus ( AsiaNews / Agencies) - The UN inspectors have collected "considerable" evidence of a possible chemical weapons attack in Damascus. Tomorrow they will leave the country and report the first results to Secretary-General Ban Ki -moon. Meanwhile, the British parliament has rejected any possibility of a military intervention on the Syrian government , while the United States ponders the possibility of intervening on their own to punish this "crime against humanity " .

Farhan Haq , a spokesman for the United Nations , said last night that evidence collected by inspectors in Damascus will be sent to laboratories in Europe to be analyzed with care. The results should be ready in a week. But the UN team will give an initial reporto the Secretary-General as soon as tomorrow, as soon as they arrive from Syria.

In recent days, Ban has asked the major powers pushing for military strikes against Syria to at least wait for evidence of the use of chemical weapons. The United States, Britain, France, Turkey are convinced that chemical weapons were used in Ghouta on the orders of the Assad regime .

Yesterday some members of the U.S. Congress presented independent evidence gathered by Washington intelligence, which proves "beyond all doubt " that Damascus "has used chemical weapons " and that "the Assad government has used them in intentionally . "

A statement released yesterday by the White House says that President Obama will make a decision "in the best interest of the United States." So far, Barack Obama said he was certain that Assad has used chemical weapons , but has not yet said yes to a military intervention .

Yesterday the possibility of an international forces punitive attack on Syria suffered a major defeat : the English Parliament voted in a majority against any possible involvement , forcing Prime Minister David Cameron to back down .

Among the interventionists remains France. Yesterday, President François Hollande met with the head of the Syrian opposition, Ahmad Jarba , reiterating that the use of chemical weapons can not remain unanswered and promising more military aid to the rebels.

In general, European public opinion is divided, but the majority (between 60 and 52%) is against a military attack on Syria . The memory of what happened in Iraq in 2003 weighs heavily on many peoples minds, when the war was launched on the basis of revelations from U.S. intelligence on Saddam Hussein's possession of weapons of mass destruction , which were never found.

In the meantime, the presence of U.S., French and Russian military ships and British fighter jets in the Mediterranean Sea is growing.

 

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