Viewpoint: Chemical weapons ‘threat to West’

Reports of attacks using chemical weapons in Syria are occurring with alarming frequency, despite international warnings that such acts cross an intolerable red line.

Here, chemical weapons expert Hamish de Bretton-Gordon argues that the world is becoming too passive on this issue, and could end up paying the price.

There have been at least six documented chemical attacks in the Ghouta region and Idlib province, allegedly by the Syrian government, in the last two weeks.
These have predominantly been chlorine, dropped, witnesses say, as barrel bombs or fired in rockets - though the most recent attack on the town of Saraqeb on 4 February appears to be the deadly nerve agent, Sarin. Three children are reported to have been killed.
As we approach the seventh year of the shockingly violent conflict, this war has become synonymous with two distinct and irrefutable crimes against humanity: the use of chemical weapons, and - aid agencies say - the direct targeting of hospitals and medical personnel.
While the Syrian government has consistently denied using chemical weapons or targeting medical facilities, evidence I have seen contradicts this.
In this seven-year period there have been over a thousand documented uses of chemical weapons, and the UN's inspectors, the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), have been called to investigate some attacks.
However Russia, Syria's key ally, has vetoed their activities 10 times to date.

Source : BBC

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