U.N. Security Council members discussed Syria behind closed doors Thursday as British Prime Minister David Cameron argued the use of chemical weapons requires Western intervention in that nation's civil war.
Britain's Joint Intelligence Committee has concluded it was "highly likely" that Syrian government forces used poison gas outside Damascus last week in an attack that killed at least 350 people, according to a summary of the committee's findings released Thursday. Speaking in the House of Commons, Cameron said failure to respond would undo "decades of painstaking work" to prevent such weapons from being unleashed.
"The global consensus against the use of chemical weapons will be fatally unraveled," he said. "A 100-year taboo will have been breached."
But the debate appears to be putting the brakes on possible strikes against Syria, even as the United States moved an additional warship into the eastern Mediterranean Sea."It certainly seemed 48 hours ago that there was an all-party consensus that Parliament today would be endorsing the bombing of Syria this weekend, and I think people have pulled back from that," said Diane Abbott, a Commons member from the opposition Labour Party.
In Washington, White House spokesman Josh Earnest said President Barack Obama was still weighing a potential response, but said his administration was working on a "compressed timeline."
And in New York, the Security Council convened Thursday afternoon in a session called by Russia, Syria's leading ally, a Western diplomat told CNN.
Why Russia, Iran and China are standing by Assad
U.N. weapons inspectors are now in Syria trying to confirm the use of chemical weapons. The inspectors are expected to leave the country by Saturday morning, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said Thursday.
Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's government denies using the weapons against opposition forces and says its troops were the victims, not perpetrators, of recent gas attacks; but both British and U.S. officials say the rebels have no capability to use poison gas on the scale of the August 21 attack near Damascus, which opposition sources said killed more than 1,300.
