President Trump might not feel obliged to await the results of an international investigation into the latest chemical weapons attack in Syria to decide if an attack on President Bashar Assad’s regime should face a retaliatory strike, the State Department said Tuesday.
“The United States government has its own mechanisms to be able to look into things,” State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert told reporters.
Nauert touted American intelligence capabilities against the backdrop of a United Nations Security Council debate over how to investigate the latest reports that chemical weapons have been used in a Syrian hotspot. Western allies have blamed Assad, while Russia has denied that any chemical weapons were used, along with arguing that rebel forces might have staged the incident to provoke a Western strike on the regime.
“A chemical was used, we’re just not sure — at this point, today — exactly what was used,” Nauert said.
Russia vetoed a U.S.-drafted Security Council resolution to establish an international mechanism for investigating the attack, while a Russian alternative failed with only six supporters among the 15-member council.
“The United States did everything possible to work toward Security Council unity on this text,” U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Nikki Haley said Tuesday. “Russia’s resolution gives Russia itself the chance to choose the investigators and then to assess the outcome. There is nothing independent about that. The United States is not asking to choose the investigators and neither should Russia.”
International monitors with the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons have announced plans to go to Douma, the scene of the latest incident. Assad’s government is tasked with “mak[ing] the necessary arrangements” for the trip, per the OPCW, while Russia has offered to guarantee the security of the monitors.
Trump’s administration, along with Western allies, have signaled a willingness to carry out a retaliatory strike against Assad quite apart from the results of the OPCW probe.
“We know that only certain players, to use your word, have access to these kinds of chemical weapons,” Nauert said Tuesday in response to a reporter’s question. “We know that it requires certain kinds of delivery mechanisms to use these kinds of weapons. Not everyone out there has access to those delivery mechanisms. So, we have that information, we’re familiar with it.”
