Paris:
France's foreign minister said on Tuesday that there was no doubt the Syrian government had used nerve agent sarin against rebels, and that all options, including military action, were under consideration.
Increasing reports from the battlefield of the use of chemical weapons have lent urgency to a new diplomatic push to end the war and fuelled some calls for Western intervention in the conflict.
Speaking on France 2 television, Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius said some samples tested by Paris proved that the Syrian government had used sarin.
"In the second case there is no doubt that it was the regime and its accomplices because we are aware of the entire chain from when the attack took place, to when the people were killed and when the sample was taken," he said.
United Nations investigators said on Tuesday they had "reasonable grounds" to believe that limited amounts of chemical weapons had been used in Syria in a conflict where brutality was now a tactic of war.
France has been testing samples of suspected chemical weapon elements for several weeks, including some smuggled out by reporters from the French daily Le Monde, and others obtained earlier from inside Syria.
The results had been handed to the Swedish head of a U.N. chemical weapons investigation team, Ake Sellstrom, he said.
A French diplomatic source said the samples had come from Jobar, in the east of Damascus, and Saraqib near the northern city of Idlib.
RED LINE CROSSED?
When asked whether a red line had been crossed, Fabius said that "undoubtedly" a line had been crossed and that Paris was discussing with its allies how to react.
"All options are on the table," he said. "That means either we decide not to react or we decide to react including by armed actions targeting the place where the gas is stored."
He said that while it was important to react to the findings, it was also vital to ensure that efforts to reach a peaceful solution were not hindered.
The sides in the conflict, now in its third year, have accused each other of using chemical weapons.
President Bashar al-Assad's government has denied using chemical weapons and has in turn accused rebels of deploying them in the two-year civil war that the United Nations says has killed more than 80,000 people.
U.N. investigators have been ready for weeks, but diplomatic wrangling and safety concerns have delayed their entry into Syria.
Syria, which is not a member of the anti-chemical weapons convention, is believed to have one of the world's last remaining stockpiles of undeclared chemical arms.
"It would be unacceptable that those guilty of these crimes remain unpunished," Fabius said.
Increasing reports from the battlefield of the use of chemical weapons have lent urgency to a new diplomatic push to end the war and fuelled some calls for Western intervention in the conflict.
Speaking on France 2 television, Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius said some samples tested by Paris proved that the Syrian government had used sarin.
"In the second case there is no doubt that it was the regime and its accomplices because we are aware of the entire chain from when the attack took place, to when the people were killed and when the sample was taken," he said.
United Nations investigators said on Tuesday they had "reasonable grounds" to believe that limited amounts of chemical weapons had been used in Syria in a conflict where brutality was now a tactic of war.
France has been testing samples of suspected chemical weapon elements for several weeks, including some smuggled out by reporters from the French daily Le Monde, and others obtained earlier from inside Syria.
The results had been handed to the Swedish head of a U.N. chemical weapons investigation team, Ake Sellstrom, he said.
A French diplomatic source said the samples had come from Jobar, in the east of Damascus, and Saraqib near the northern city of Idlib.
RED LINE CROSSED?
When asked whether a red line had been crossed, Fabius said that "undoubtedly" a line had been crossed and that Paris was discussing with its allies how to react.
"All options are on the table," he said. "That means either we decide not to react or we decide to react including by armed actions targeting the place where the gas is stored."
He said that while it was important to react to the findings, it was also vital to ensure that efforts to reach a peaceful solution were not hindered.
The sides in the conflict, now in its third year, have accused each other of using chemical weapons.
President Bashar al-Assad's government has denied using chemical weapons and has in turn accused rebels of deploying them in the two-year civil war that the United Nations says has killed more than 80,000 people.
U.N. investigators have been ready for weeks, but diplomatic wrangling and safety concerns have delayed their entry into Syria.
Syria, which is not a member of the anti-chemical weapons convention, is believed to have one of the world's last remaining stockpiles of undeclared chemical arms.
"It would be unacceptable that those guilty of these crimes remain unpunished," Fabius said.
© Thomson Reuters 2013
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