Western nations have "hard evidence" that chemical weapons have been used at least once by the Syrian army, diplomats told Agence France-Presse.
"In one case we have hard evidence," a western diplomat said. "There are several examples where we are quite sure that shells with chemicals have been used in a very sporadic way."
A diplomat from a UN Security Council nation told AFP said that UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon has received "quite convincing" to back accusations against Assad's forces.
Evidence of a chemical attack by Syrian President Bashar al-Assad would cross President Obama's "Red Line," — which he said would force America to shift its military position — but their doesn't seem to be any significant international response.
@hhassan140 If you listen very closely, you still can't hear NATO planes fueling up.
— michaeldweiss (@michaeldweiss) April 12, 2013
AFP notes that Britain and France have submitted information to the UN about allegations in the city of Homs in December and near Damascus last month.
On December 23 there were multiple reports the Homs attack, and doctors belonging to Syrian American Medical Society (SAMS) subsequently corroborated the claims when they described a "probable" use of what chemical specialists refer to as Agent-15 (known as BZ to NATO).
The following week "Western intelligence sources" told Ynet News that chemical weapons have been used no more than 19 times.
Assad called for the UN to look into the chemical weapons used near Aleppo last month, but refused to let international experts into the country after learning that the UN wanted to investigate other claims as well.
At this point, the international community may well be just as concerned with the increasing power of al-Qaeda-linked Syrian rebels than toppling of Assad.
Concerns about the type of post-Assad situation that is arising — such as jihadists governing towns and half of Aleppo — may be making the West hesitate about intervening militarily despite mounting evidence that Assad has used chemical weapons.
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