Reuters/United Nations

The UN yesterday vehemently rejected suggestions that the world body was somehow stepping aside to allow US air strikes on Syria over an alleged chemical attack, saying its humanitarian work in the conflict-ravaged nation would continue.

“I have seen all kinds of reporting suggesting that the departure of the chemical weapons team somehow opens a window for military action of some kind,” UN spokesman Martin Nesirky told reporters.

“Frankly, that’s grotesque, and it’s also an affront to the more than 1,000 staff, UN staff, who are on the ground in Syria delivering humanitarian aid and who will continue to deliver critical aid,” he said.

UN experts arrived in the Netherlands yesterday with evidence gathered in their investigation of a poison gas attack in Syria. Also yesterday, President Barack Obama said he had decided the US should strike Syrian government targets, but that he would seek a congressional vote for any military action.

Nesirky repeated that the inspectors would return later to investigate several other alleged poison gas attacks that have taken place in Syria during the country’s 2-1/2-year civil war.

He also responded to US Secretary of State John Kerry’s remarks on Friday that the UN chemical weapons experts cannot provide any information that the US, which blames Syrian President Bashar al-Assad for last week’s attack that Washington says killed more than 1,400 people, does not already have.

“The UN mission is uniquely capable of establishing in an impartial and credible manner the facts of any use of chemical weapons based directly on evidence collected on the ground,” he said.

Assad’s government, like Russia, blames the rebels for last week’s alleged chemical weapon attack.

UN diplomats told Reuters on Friday that UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon explained to delegates from the five permanent Security Council members - Britain, China, France, Russia and the US - that it would take up to two weeks before the chemical inspectors’ final report is ready.

UN officials say the world body’s findings will be important because they will be widely seen as irrefutable, in contrast to doubts that arise with intelligence in light of the erroneous information on Iraq’s weapons of mass destruction programmes that was used to justify the 2003 invasion.

Nesirky was also asked about the legality of any military action against Syria without authorisation of the Security Council. He responded by saying: “The secretary general has underscored the importance of the UN charter.”

According to the UN charter, the council should authorise any military action that does not involve self-defence.

Obama said yesterday he was “comfortable going forward without the approval of a UN Security Council that so far has been completely paralysed and unwilling to hold Assad accountable”.

“While the UN investigation has some time to report on its findings, we will insist that an atrocity committed with chemical weapons is not simply investigated,” he said. “It must be confronted.”

Russia, backed by China, has used its veto power in the Security Council three times to block resolutions condemning Assad’s government and threatening it with sanctions.

The US has bypassed the UN in the past when the council was deadlocked, such as in the case of the Kosovo war in 1999. At that time, Washington relied on Nato authorisation for its bombing campaign.

The UN inspectors will determine only whether chemical weapons were used last week and in several other alleged poison gas attacks, not who used them. Nesirky was asked why the UN does not expand the mandate to include naming those responsible for any chemical attacks.

“The mandate is the mandate. The team and the secretary general will abide by that mandate,” he said. “The mandate is robust and provides for the UN to be able to provide for, in an impartial and credible manner, a picture of what happened.”

He added that the mandate was derived from a UN General Assembly resolution.

“Let’s not forget that these are scientists, technical and medical experts who braved sniper fire to go to collect samples and to interview witnesses and survivors,” he said.

The UN has received at least 14 reports of possible chemical weapons use in Syria. After months of diplomatic wrangling, the UN experts, led by Swedish scientist Ake Sellstrom, arrived in Syria on August 18 with a 14-day mandate to visit the country.

The UN team was initially going to look into three incidents, but its priority became last week’s attack. The inspectors have also been looking into Syrian allegations that the rebels used chemical weapons three times last month against the Syrian army - allegations that Washington has dismissed.