UN chief urges world leaders to stop fueling Syria war

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon urged world leaders to stop fueling the bloodshed in Syria with weapons, and get both sides to the negotiating table to end the biggest challenge to peace and security in the world. In his state of the world address to open the annual gathering of presidents, prime ministers and monarchs at the UN General Assembly on Tuesday, the UN chief said the international response to last month's "heinous use of chemical weapons" in Syria "has created diplomatic momentum — the first signs of unity in far too long". Ban called on the Security Council to adopt an "enforceable" resolution on a US-Russian agreement to put Syria's chemical weapons under international control for destruction and bring to justice the perpetrators of the Aug. 21 chemical weapons attack outside Damascus "either through referral to the International Criminal Court or by other means consistent with international law". The UN diplomats say differences between the US and Russia on how a resolution should be enforced have held up action in the Security Council. Russia is opposed to any mention of Chapter 7 of the UN Charter, which includes military and non-military actions to promote peace and security. Earlier this month, Ban Ki-moon condemned as a "war crime" the deadly attack carried out on a Damascus suburb last month after a UN inspectors’ report said there was "clear and convincing evidence" that chemical weapons were used. "The report makes chilling reading… the results are overwhelming and indisputable," Ban told a news conference after meeting with the UN Security Council about the report, RIA Novosti reported. "The findings are beyond doubt and beyond the pale: this is a war," Ban said. A team of UN inspectors who analyzed environmental, chemical and medical samples, and interviewed dozens of survivors of the attack, as well as first responders and medical personnel who rushed to help them, concluded in the report that chemical weapons were used "against civilians, including many children, on a relatively large scale" in the Damascus suburb of Ghouta on Aug 21. According to the report, 85 percent of blood samples taken from 34 survivors of the attack tested positive for the deadly nerve toxin, Sarin; a majority of environmental samples confirmed the use of the deadly nerve gas, and rockets or fragments of rockets that were recovered by the UN team at the scene of the attack were determined to have carried Sarin. The UN inspectors were mandated only to report on whether chemical weapons were used and if so, which ones, not to determine who was responsible for the attack, which the United States says killed more than 1,400 people. Without apportioning blame, Ban warned that "those perpetrators who have used chemical weapons or any other weapons of mass destruction will be brought to justice." The Assad government has said the attack was the work of rebels hoping to incite foreign intervention, a stance backed by Moscow.