From an article by the Associated Press in Monday’s Washington Post:
“U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon expressed alarm at ‘the weakening taboo’ against using chemical weapons in Syria where the international watchdog said it is studying several recent cases of alleged use of the banned agents, according to a letter circulated Monday.
The U.N. chief said in a letter to the Security Council transmitting the monthly report from the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons that he is gravely concerned that the use of chemical weapons could become ‘normalized in this or any conflict, present or future.’
‘It is imperative that those responsible for the use of chemical weapons should be held accountable,’ Ban told the council in the letter.”
Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon’s comments give you another view on what Jeffrey Goldberg said about President Obama’s view of his decision not to hold Syria to account for its use of chemical weapons1 and its breaking of President Obama’s own redline on the use of such chemical weapons. According to Mr. Goldberg, “that decision is a source of deep satisfaction for [President Obama]. … I have come to believe that, in Obama’s mind, August 30, 2013, was his liberation day ….”
That may be true for President Obama, but it looks differently for the people of Syria and, according to U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, for the international rules against the use of chemical weapons.
-----------
1 No matter what President Obama may think of his getting Syria to agree to destroy its chemical weapons, Syria’s destruction of some or all of certain of its chemical weapons has not stopped Syria from using different chemical weapons now.
Comments