Syria crisis: Cameron and Obama pledge 'serious response' if chemical attack is proved

 
Sickening: a Syrian man grieves over a dead body after the apparent chemical weapon attack in Damascus
AP
Staff|Pa25 August 2013

The Prime Minister and Barack Obama have pledged a "serious response" if it can be proved that the Syrian regime used chemical weapons against its own people.

Mr Cameron and Mr Obama discussed the crisis by telephone last night and have ordered officials to examine "all options".

Medecins Sans Frontieres said hospitals it supports in Syria treated some 3,600 patients with "neurotoxic symptoms", 355 of whom died, many of them children.

It said the patients had arrived in three hospitals in the Damascus area on Wednesday. Staff described people suffering from convulsions, extreme salivation, contracted pupils and sight and respiratory problems. However, the organisation stressed it could not "scientifically confirm" the use of chemical weapons.

A Downing Street spokesman said: "They are both gravely concerned by the attack that took place in Damascus on Wednesday and the increasing signs that this was a significant chemical weapons attack carried out by the Syrian regime against its own people.

"The UN Security Council has called for immediate access for UN investigators on the ground in Damascus. The fact that President Assad has failed to co-operate with the UN suggests that the regime has something to hide.

"They reiterated that significant use of chemical weapons would merit a serious response from the international community and both have tasked officials to examine all the options.

"They agreed that it is vital that the world upholds the prohibition on the use of chemical weapons and deters further outrages. They agreed to keep in close contact on the issue."

The talks came as the Pentagon moved naval forces closer to Syria in case Mr Obama decides to order military strikes, US Defence Secretary Chuck Hagel has suggested.

Speaking to reporters aboard his military aircraft en route from Hawaii to Malaysia, Mr Hagel declined to discuss any specific force movements.

He said Mr Obama has asked the Pentagon to provide military options in light of reports that the Syrian government used chemical weapons against civilians.

Mr Hagel said the US will coordinate with the international community in deciding whether such an attack was carried out.

And he said it is important to make a decision swiftly because of the possibility that the Syrian government could be readying further chemical attacks.

Mr Obama previously suggested that the use of chemical weapons in Syria would be a "gamechanger".

But he has stopped short of committing to direct intervention - a step that would risk inflaming tensions with Russia.

Mr Cameron would also face domestic resistance to military action, with Tory MPs already having insisted there should be a Commons vote before arms are supplied to rebels.

However, there is speculation that the US, Britain and France could back limited airstrikes to demonstrate that deployment of chemical weapons will not be tolerated.

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