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International Weapons Expert Urges Caution In Syria

Francesca Bessey |
August 30, 2013 | 6:16 p.m. PDT

Executive Producer

How do we know the toxin used was sarin? (Yikrazuul, Wikimedia Commons)
How do we know the toxin used was sarin? (Yikrazuul, Wikimedia Commons)
The United States has yet to decide what course of action it will take after intelligence reports confirmed the use of chemical weapons against civilians in Syria. However, leading chemical weapons expert Jean Pascal Zanders has warned that things may not be as certain as they seem, the Huffington Post reports.

Zanders, who served as a senior reserch fellow for the European Union Institute for Security Studies until last spring, told the Huffington Post UK that Syrian civilians were asphyxiated outside of Damascus last week, but that the identity of the toxin responsible was still in question.

"Everyons is saying sarin," Zanders said. "There is something clearlt to do with a neurotoxicant [such as sarin] but not everything is pointing in that direction."

MORE: Sarin: The Deadly Killer

The identity of the agent is crucial in determining a plan of action because without this information, according to Zanders, it is impossible to prove that the Assad regime was indeed responsible for the attack.

 

Read the full story at Huffington Post UK.

Read more Neon Tommy coverage of Syria here.

Reach Executive Producer Francesca Bessey here. Follow her here.



 

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