'No doubt' Syria used chemical arms, says US Vice-President Joe Biden

'No doubt' Syria used
chemical arms, says US
Vice-President Joe
Biden
28 August 2013 Last updated at 07:50
US Vice-President Joe Biden has said
there is "no doubt" that the Syrian
government has used chemical
weapons and that it must be held
accountable.
The US has said its military is ready to
launch strikes should President Barack
Obama order an attack, and allies say
they too are ready to act.
The Syrian government has strongly
denied claims it used chemical weapons.
UN weapons inspectors are set to return
to the site of last week's suspected attack
near Damascus on Wednesday.
Their evidence-gathering visit was
delayed by a day after they were fired
on.
The US says it will release its own
intelligence report into the incident at
Ghouta, a suburb of the capital, in the
coming days.
More than 300 people reportedly died
there.
President Obama is said to have made at
least 88 calls to foreign leaders since
Wednesday's suspected attack, and
spoke to UK Prime Minister David
Cameron for the second time on
Tuesday.
Mr Cameron said the world could "not
stand idly by", and French President
Francois Hollande said France was
"ready to punish" whoever was behind
the attack.
The UK's National Security Council is due
to convene on Wednesday to discuss
possible responses, while Parliament is to
be recalled on Thursday.
On Wednesday, Russian Foreign Minister
Sergei Lavrov warned that "attempts at a
military solution will lead only to the
further destabilisation" in Syria and the
region.
Mr Lavrov emphasised the need for a
political solution in a phone call to the
joint UN-Arab League envoy to Syria,
Lakhdar Brahimi, the foreign ministry in
Moscow said.
Russia, China and Iran have previously
warned against launching an attack on
the war-ravaged country, where more
than 100,000 people are thought to
have died in two years of fighting.
Stocks have fallen on global markets and
oil prices have shot up amid growing
concern about an impending attack.
No 'regime change'
The US has not yet released its
intelligence report into the alleged
chemical attack, but US officials now say
they are certain the Syrian government
was behind the incident.
Mr Biden is the most senior member of
the Obama administration to blame the
Syrian government for the attack.
In a speech to a veterans' group in
Houston, he said there was "no doubt
who was responsible for this heinous use
of chemical weapons in Syria: the Syrian
regime".
He said that "those who use chemical
weapons against defenceless men,
women, and children... must be held
accountable".
White House spokesman Jay Carney
earlier said it would be "fanciful" to think
anyone else could be responsible - saying
the Syrian regime remained in control of
the country's chemical arsenal and used
the type of rocket that carried the
payload used last Wednesday.
But he insisted there were no plans for
"regime change". Any military campaign
is likely to be limited in scope, with
missile strikes targeting military sites and
no ground troops.
US Defence Secretary Chuck Hagel told
the BBC on Tuesday the US military had
"moved assets in place" so all options
were available to the president.
The head of the UN chemical inspectors
team, Ake Sellstrom, and the UN's
disarmament chief, Angela Kane, left their
hotel in Damascus on Tuesday.
UN chemical weapons inspectors spent
nearly three hours in the suburb of
Muadhamiya in western Damascus on
Monday.