Syria has been accused of using chemical weapons, according to the governments of the United Kingdom and the United States. President Obama has stated that this could be a “gamer changer” for US political foreign affairs concerning Syria. Prime Minister David Cameron told the BBC’s political editor Nick Robinson: “I choose my words carefully, but what I see does look very much like a war crime is being committed in our world, at this time, by the Syrian government.”
Syria has dismissed these accusations as “lies”.
Syria has been involved in a ‘civil war’, in an uprising, that has lasted 2 years. The death toll ranges from 60-70,000 people killed within that period. It is said that the death toll is increasing rapidly everyday.
In a report by Amnesty International:
“The dead bodies found every day in towns and villages across Syria bearing marks of execution-style killing and torture are the grim evidence of mounting war crimes and other abuses being committed not just by government forces, but also by armed opposition groups.”
The US administration has been in strong protest against what the Assad regime is doing; however, they have not supplied weapons to the rebel forces and nor have they intervened. It’s thought that a Russian naval base situated in Syria is stopping any action from being taken, as the situation reeks similar to that of the Libyan uprising where many western countries intervened.
President Obama went on further to say:
“Horrific as it is when mortars are being fired on civilians and people are being indiscriminately killed, to use potential weapons of mass destruction on civilian populations crosses another line with respect to international norms and international law.
“All of us, not just the United States, but around the world, have to recognise how we cannot stand by and permit the systematic use of weapons like chemical weapons on civilian populations,” he said.
It is not known when the fighting in Syria will draw to a close. For now, it’s a never ending conflict for the people of Syria.
