US receives Syria chemical weapons evidence from France

{mosads}Psaki denied allegations that the administration was skeptical of French and other foreign intelligence, but said it needed to be further evaluated. It’s not known where or when the alleged use of sarin gas occurred, or what form the French evidence came in. 

“We’re not going to evaluate it or litigate it in public, but I will just reiterate that we are still looking into finalizing the facts, looking into confirming the facts, and we don’t want to get ahead of our confirmation of any of that,” Psaki said. “I would not expect that there will be a public evaluation of information we receive from the French or any other country.”

The United Nations said the new allegations confirm the need for U.N. experts to conduct their own investigation inside Syria, to confirm the integrity of the samples that are being leaked out to foreign intelligence services. Assad has refused the U.N.’s call to be able to move around the country instead of only analyzing events in which the Syrian government says rebels used chemical weapons.

Ake Sellström, the head of the U.N. fact-finding mission, has also received new evidence from France.

“Mr. Sellström cautions that the validity of the information is not ensured in the absence of convincing evidence of the chain-of-custody of the data collected,” the U.N. said in a statement. “In this regard, he reiterates his belief that on-site activities are essential if the United Nations is to be able to establish the facts.”

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