world news :If chemical attack proved, France says, nations should respond ‘with force’

BEIRUT — France on Thursday raised the possibility of international intervention in Syria if there is solid proof that President Bashar al-Assad used chemical weapons against his people.

Activists, meanwhile, struggled to confirm that more than 1,000 people had perished, as experts warned that vital physical evidence could dissipate unless a U.N. inspection team — already in the country to investigate previous claims of poisonous gas use — was given permission to visit the site.

The U.N. weapons experts were negotiating with Syrian officials to try and gain access, according to U.N. officials.

Although the United States, France, Britain and others have specifically requested that the inspection team proceed, “there is a requirement of consent in situations like this,” Deputy U.N. Secretary General Jan Eliasson said, “and also that the security situation will allow them to enter the area. It is a very dramatic situation and the security situation right now does not allow such access.”

The Syrian government on Wednesdaystrongly denied that there had been an attack. But widely circulated images of children in spasms and vomiting added to the pressure on the United States and the international community to take robust action.

The alleged attack came almost exactly a year after President Obama said the use of chemical weapons by Assad’s forces would be a “red line” for his administration.

“There would have to be reaction with force in Syria from the international community,” Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius told French television network BFM, when asked about action that should be taken if the allegations are proven. He added, however, that “there is no question of sending troops on the ground.”

Fabius alluded to the possibility that the international community might need to circumvent the United Nations Security Council, which has been stymied in acting on Syria by veto-wielding Russia, a long-time ally of Assad’s.

During an emergency meeting on Wednesday, the council’s members failed to agree on a strongly worded statement condemning the attack, simply calling for a “thorough, impartial and prompt investigation.”

Britain, France and the United States were pushing for a stronger statement, but Russia and China objected, the Associated Press reported. The Russian government, Assad’s strongest supporter, suggested that the opposition itself had staged the attack in a “pre-planned provocation.’’

After a two-hour closed door session, the council emerged with a “call for investigation” of the new allegations. The request does not refer specifically to the team currently on the ground, instead speaking of the need to “clarify” what happened.

Under its current mandate and agreement with Syrian government, the U.N. team that is now inside Syria is authorized to examine only three sites of the 13 that various other governments and the Syrian opposition had identified as suspicious before the Wednesday attack.

One Security Council diplomat said that Wednesday’s letter was intended to “increase political pressure on Syria” to permit the inspection team currently in the country access to the site of the latest incident.
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