UN Security Council members were reportedly moved to tears on Thursday as the 15 envoys heard a report by a Syrian doctor who said that he treated victims of a chlorine bomb attack on the village of Sarmin, near Idlib in northern Syria, last month that killed six people, including three children. A Syrian doctor who treated the victims was helped out of the country by the United States, which arranged for the closed-door briefing. It is noteworthy that this graphic eyewitness account of dying children was arranged by the US which can do so much but has done so little to end the war in Syria. The Security Council presentation, aside from leaving not a dry eye in the house, is a reflection of American impotence in this horrific four-year battle. While America's UN ambassador insists that those behind the chlorine attack will be held accountable, and insists that all the evidence shows that the chlorine came from helicopters which only the Al-Assad regime possesses, the Obama administration, for all its strong words, remains deeply reluctant to get involved militarily in Syria. When Secretary of State John Kerry last year remarked that the US would halt its preparations for airstrikes if Al-Assad destroyed his chemical arsenal, Russian President Vladimir Putin called it a deal. He would help to remove the chemical weapons, and the US would call off the airstrikes. Putin's gambit was a ploy to buy time, elevate his stature in the Middle East, and make President Barack Obama look weak. And so, Al-Assad lost his stash of deadly chemicals, but he stayed in power, at least for the time being, and Russia re-emerged as a serious player in Middle Eastern politics. At the same time, Obama could cite his threat to use force as the reason Putin suddenly swung into action. He could thus take at least joint credit for ridding Syria of chemical weapons and upholding international law. And he was saved from having to make good on letting Congress vote on whether to authorize the use of force, a vote that he seemed all but certain to lose. This is how things were before the infamous sarin strike of August 2013 which pushed Obama across a red line he didn't want to cross all by himself, but knew he would when it became clear that no other institution - not the United Nations, NATO, the Arab League, or the US Congress - wanted to cross with him. Thus, the only losers in this diplomatic venture became the Syrians. They're stuck with Al-Assad, and the civil war rages on. The chlorine attack took place on March 16, just 10 days after a rare moment of agreement when the Security Council passed a resolution condemning the use of chlorine. That, however, was not a stupendous achievement. The chemical does not have to be declared because it is also used for regular purposes in industry. It is not in itself designated or banned as a chemical weapon, and bears little relation to sarin or other deadly nerve agents which Syria has been obliged to destroy or hand over. Russia says there would need to be strong proof of who is to blame for any chemical attacks before the council can take action, but any action by the Security Council looks almost impossible. Russia is likely to veto any further condemnation of the Assad government. And neither the UN nor the global chemical weapons watchdog, the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, has a mandate to assign blame in any attack. So unless its outrages are too blatant, Damascus knows it can count on Russian diplomatic protection and a US with little stomach for military intervention.
