The suspected gas attack on a rebel-held town in Syria’s north-western province of Idlib needs swift investigation to establish unequivocal responsibility. More than 70 people were killed in the worst attack in decades that bears all the hallmarks of the Bashar Al Assad regime’s previous activities. But the regime and its Russian allies have denied using chemical weapons and blamed rebels for the carnage. Russia added that it had no warplanes in the vicinity of the town. Nonetheless, Al Assad’s forces have used gas in the past and were recently using chlorine gas on the rebel-held eastern Aleppo throughout its long siege. Lack of international outrage may have encouraged the Syrian regime to think that it can get away with such crimes.
The UN Security Council should set up a mechanism to establish responsibility for the gas attack. The Council is holding an emergency meeting to discuss the suspected chemical attack that has fanned global outrage. The graphic pictures have set off a storm of justified condemnation, with world leaders expressing their shock and anger at what is the deadliest attack of its nature in Syria in years.
Disjointed White House response
If responsibility is clearly established, then the regime must bear the full consequences — as would its allies Russia and Iran. Such an awful crime cannot be ignored or covered up, as shamefully happened with Syria’s previous attacks. Famously, former US president Barack Obama failed to enforce his own ‘red line’ on Al Assad in 2012 after previous chemical attacks were discovered. This failure to act has helped give Al Assad the impression that he can do whatever he likes as he seeks to save his regime and brutalise his people. This allowed Al Assad to approve the use of gas in his forces’ assault on Aleppo, where again the world failed to react with the horror and the firm action that was required.
This time, US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson called on Russia and Iran “to exercise their influence over the Syrian regime” adding that the two nations “bear great moral responsibility for these deaths.” But sadly, Tillerson’s correct response was out of line with the first response from the White House, which was totally inadequate and illustrated Trump’s vacuum in foreign policy thinking and on Syria in particular. Trump responded to the gas attack with complete silence for some time, but then focused his reaction on criticism of his predecessor Obama, describing the attack as a direct “consequence” of Obama’s Syria policy. “These heinous actions by the Bashar Al Assad regime are a consequence of the last administration’s weakness and irresolution,” he said in a statement referring to Obama’s failure to enforce a ‘red line’ in 2012, which merely illustrated Trump’s enduring sense of being in his predecessor’s shadow. He should have concentrated on Al Assad’s actions this week.
Moral collapse
The world should never get used to such brutality, and it should never pardon it by accepting it or ignoring it. Murdering innocent civilians is a crime and the perpetrators need to be held accountable for their dark deeds. But the failure of global leadership and the moral collapse of the UN’s dominance as a forum to shape international foreign policy has helped allow far too many tyrants and dictators to assume that they can get away with the gross flouting of well-established human values. Two specific and urgent examples are Iran and North Korea, both of which have the capability to trigger a major catastrophe and both of which seem to act with impunity.
The regime of Kim Jong-un in North Korea has just tested yet another ballistic missile just days before Trump is set to meet Chinese President Xi Jinping and Tillerson came up with the bizarre statement that ““North Korea launched yet another intermediate range ballistic missile. The United States has spoken enough about North Korea. We have no further comment.” That was his entire comment, and his failure to condemn or indicate specific (if continued) outrage at North Korea will have greatly encouraged Kim.
Iran continues to meddle with impunity across the Arab world, sponsoring militias in Iraq, working with Al Assad in Syria, backing Al Houthis in Yemen, to name only a few of its actions. Yet the international signatories to the nuclear deal have not acted with the same vigour as they did over the nuclear threat, and Iran continues to feel that it can act as it wishes without consequence.
The way back to global enforcement of human values and the rule of law is for all nation states to work with the United Nations and seek international support for any enforcement of long-held international values. Unilateral invasion or regime change, or imposition of sanctions, or attempts to destabilise, have repeatedly proved ineffective in the long term. Swift and effective discussion by the United Nations allows the world to come to a conclusion and agree on common action. If a big power chooses to veto such action, then the publicity of such action will make it clear where the responsibility lies.
