Damascus – International inspectors launched their investigation Sundayinto an alleged chemical attack near Damascus that prompted anunprecedented wave of Western strikes against Syria’s regime.
Russian President Vladimir Putin, the regime’s top ally, warned that freshstrikes would spark “chaos”, but Washington vowed economic sanctionsagainst Moscow rather than further military action.
US, French and British missiles destroyed sites suspected of hostingchemical weapons development and storage facilities Saturday, but thebuildings were mostly empty and the Western trio swiftly reverted to itsdiplomatic efforts.
US President Donald Trump lauded the “perfectly executed” strike, thebiggest international attack on President Bashar al-Assad’s regime duringSyria’s seven-year war, but both Damascus and Syria’s opposition rubbishedits impact.
A team of chemical experts from the Organisation for the Prohibition ofChemical Weapons, based in The Hague, arrived in Damascus hours after thestrikes.
They have been tasked with investigating the site of the alleged April 7attack in the town of Douma, just east of the capital Damascus, whichWestern powers said involved chlorine and sarin and killed dozens.
They arrived in Damascus on Saturday but there were no reports they yet hadtravelled to Douma to begin their field work.
An AFP reporter saw Deputy Foreign Minister Faisal Mokdad enter the FourSeasons hotel where the chemical experts are staying and leave three hourslater.
The fact-finding team usually starts its investigation by meeting topofficials, but any talks were held behind closed doors and both partiesimposed a strict media blackout.
“We will ensure they can work professionally, objectively, impartially andfree of any pressure,” Assistant Foreign Minister Ayman Soussan told AFP.
The OPCW itself had declared that the Syrian government’s chemical weaponsstockpile had been removed in 2014, only to confirm later that sarin wasused in a 2017 attack in the northern town of Khan Sheikhun.
– Inspection still useful? –
The inspectors will face a difficult task, with all key players havingpre-empted their findings, including Western powers, which justified thestrikes by claiming they already had proof such weapons were used.
The OPCW team will also have to deal with the risk that evidence may havebeen removed from the site, which lies in an area that has been controlledby Russian military police and Syrian forces over the past week.
“That possibility always has to be taken into account, and investigatorswill look for evidence that shows whether the incident site has beentampered with,” Ralf Trapp, a consultant and member of a previous OPCWmission to Syria, told AFP.
The Syrian military late Saturday declared Eastern Ghouta, the former rebelenclave of which Douma is the main town, fully retaken after a blisteringtwo-month assault.
Wresting back the opposition stronghold on the doorstep of Damascus hadbeen a priority for the resurgent regime.
US leader Trump hailed the pre-dawn strikes that lit up the sky aroundDamascus and exclaimed “Mission Accomplished” on Twitter.
That drew derision from his critics and parallels with president George W.Bush’s notoriously premature Iraq war victory speech on an aircraft carrieralmost exactly 15 years ago.
According to American officials, the operation involved three USdestroyers, a French frigate and a US submarine located in the Red Sea, theGulf and the eastern Mediterranean.
The US air force confirmed on Sunday that B-1B bombers deployed at the AlUdeid Air Base in Qatar took part in the strikes.
– ‘Locked and loaded’ –
British Tornado and Typhoon warplanes and French Rafale jets also took partin the strikes.
The Pentagon said no further action was planned but Washington’s envoy tothe United Nations, Nikki Haley, warned that the US was “locked and loaded”should another gas attack occur.
Haley later told CBS that sanctions would be announced, likely on Monday,against Russian companies supplying the Syrian regime.
British foreign minister Boris Johnson said the Syrian war would continuedespite the “successful” strikes, saying the “overwhelming purpose” of themission was to respond to repeated chemical attacks.
French President Emmanuel Macron insisted that “we have not declared war onthe regime of Bashar al-Assad”.
Putin told his Iranian counterpart Hassan Rouhani, also an Assad ally, thatany new Western strikes in Syria would provoke “chaos in internationalrelations”.
The two leaders “found that this illegal action seriously damaged theprospects of a political settlement in Syria,” a Kremlin statement said.
Assad denounced a “campaign of deceit and lies at the (United Nations)Security Council” after a push by Moscow on Saturday to condemn the strikesfell far short.
Macron and other Western leaders have called for a diplomatic offensiveafter the strikes, aiming to end a conflict that has killed more than350,000 people and displaced half of Syria’s population.
A Western draft resolution obtained by AFP at a meeting of the UN SecurityCouncil Saturday calls for unimpeded deliveries of humanitarian aid andenforcement of a ceasefire, along with demands that Syria engage in UN-ledpeace talks.
But Russia has blocked countless resolutions against its Syrian ally andthe regime has appeared determined to continue its military reconquest ofthe country.
“For all the sound and fury of these strikes, their net effect is a slap onthe wrist of Bashar al-Assad,” said Nick Heras, an analyst at the Centerfor a New American Security. – APP