Syria Analysis: 5 Points About the UN Inspection of Chemical Weapons Sites / By Scott Lucas

Syria Audio Analysis: 5 Points About the UN Inspection of Chemical Weapons Sites

Scott Lucas – EAworldview –  26.8.2013 – I spoke at length on Sunday night with BBC Radio 5′s Morning Reports about the visit by United Nations inspectors to the sites of Wednesday’s chemical weapons attacks in Syria, talking about the process and looking to the wider politics.

Take-away points:

1. “The difficulty will be that, five days after the attack, it may be hard to collect evidence in the form that it can be used.”

2. “There are still questions about how much the inspectors will be allowed to see.”

3. “However, we have much more evidence in this case — samples and victims smuggled out of the country and witness statements from field hospital doctors — than we have had in previous instances”.

4. “No matter what the UN inspectors find, the propaganda line of Russia and Iran behind the Assad regime is going to be hard to shift.”

5. “I think we are going to see action from the US, but the question is what action.”

Scott Lucas Scott Lucas is a professor of American Studies at the University of Birmingham and editor-in-chief of EA WorldView.