Déjà vu – 10 years ago, US false information, misleading about WMD in Iraq and those photos…

Alexander Lukashevich, spokesman for the country’s foreign ministry, said: “All these things force us to remember the events of 10 years ago, when false information about weapons of mass destruction in Iraq was used as a pretext by the U.S., who went around the UN on an undertaking, the consequences of which are well-known to all. We again firmly urge to not repeat the mistakes of the past, and not to allow actions that are out of accord with international rights.”

UN inspectors’ car ‘deliberately shot at multiple times’ by snipers in Syria
By Albina Kovalyova, Alastair Jamieson and Catherine Chomiak – NBC News – 26 August, 2013

A United Nations team investigating claims of a poison-gas attack in a rebel-held suburb of the Syrian capital collected blood samples and interviewed survivors Monday despite being temporarily turned back by sniper fire.

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon said the team had completed its first day of inspection as he chided the regime and opposition forces to ensure “the safety and security of the investigation teams.”

The six-car convoy carrying the team was initially thwarted and forced to return to a government checkpoint after being “deliberately” targeted while driving in the capital.

“Despite such very difficult circumstances, our team returned to Damascus and replaced their car and proceeded to a suburb of Damascus to carry on their investigation,” the secretary-general said.

“They visited two hospitals, they interviewed witnesses, survivors and doctors, they also collected some samples.”

The investigation centers around a rebel-held suburb of Damascus known as Eastern Ghouta, where activists say rockets loaded with poison gas killed hundreds of civilians on Wednesday, many of them women and children.

Dressed in blue U.N. body armor, the team was accompanied by security forces and an ambulance.

There’s a sense of urgency at the White House about the ongoing issues in Syria. NBC’s Kristen Welker reports.

Earlier, Reuters cited residents saying that at least one mortar bomb fell in the area near the Four Seasons hotel, where the U.N. officials are staying. Syrian state media said the bombs had been fired by “terrorists,” the term it uses for rebels fighting President Bashar Assad.

White House officials said Sunday there was “very little doubt” that the Syrian government was responsible and had used chemical weapons to kill hundreds of civilians.

President Barack Obama has already discussed “possible responses by the international community” with allies including Britain and France, with limited airstrikes emerging as the most likely option.

Britain said it would be possible to respond to the “outrages” in Syria without the unanimous backing of the U.N. Security Council.

“We cannot in the 21st century allow the idea that chemical weapons can be used with impunity,” British foreign secretary William Hague said Monday. “The Prime Minister has discussed that with President Obama, they are agreed there must be a serious response by the international community.”

He added that Britain and other U.S. allies were “in close consultation…every hour” and that details of the international response “will emerge in due course.”

But Russia criticized the tough talk, warning the U.S. that the recent escalation in pressure by Washington and its allies echoed the preamble to the 2003 U.S.-led invasion of Iraq.

Alexander Lukashevich, spokesman for the country’s foreign ministry, said: “All these things force us to remember the events of 10 years ago, when false information about weapons of mass destruction in Iraq was used as a pretext by the U.S., who went around the UN on an undertaking, the consequences of which are well-known to all. We again firmly urge to not repeat the mistakes of the past, and not to allow actions that are out of accord with international rights.”

Russia’s foreign minister Sergei Lavrov later echoed those comments, telling a Moscow news conference that military action without U.N. Security Council approval would be “a very grave violation of international law.”

“If anybody thinks that bombing and destroying the Syrian military infrastructure, and leaving the battlefield for the opponents of the regime to win, would end everything – that is an illusion,” Lavrov said.

In an interview with a Russian newspaper, Assad denied that his forces had used chemical weapons and predicted that any U.S. military intervention in his country would be unsuccessful.

“Failure awaits the United States as in all previous wars it has unleashed, starting with Vietnam and up to the present day,” he told the pro-Kremlin Izvestia newspaper. “Would any state use chemical or any other weapons of mass destruction in a place where its own forces are concentrated? That would go against elementary logic.”

The Obama administration does not want to act unilaterally, an official said Sunday. The official added that the president has not yet determined whether to take action, but wants to have a clear plan in place for how to proceed in the event of U.S. military intervention.

A senior member of the administration said any decision would be based on U.S. intelligence in addition to any findings by U.N. inspectors. The investigators have a mandate to determine if chemical weapons were used, but do not have a mandate to determine who used them, the official said. …source