Assad responsible for Syria chemical weapons attack: Biden

He said that the Syrian government repeatedly shelled the sites of the attack to block investigation

The Obama Administration has held the Assad regime solely responsible for the use of chemical weapons in Syria and asserted that it would pay the price for this gross violation of the international norm.

"There is no doubt that an essential international norm has been violated. Chemical weapons have been used. Everyone acknowledges their use.

"No one doubts that innocent men, women and children have been the victims of chemical weapons attacks in Syria," US Vice President Joe Biden said in his address to the American Legion 95th National Convention in Houston yesterday.

"And there is no doubt who is responsible for this heinous use of chemical weapons in Syria: the Syrian regime."

"For we know that the Syrian regime are the only ones who have used chemical weapons multiple times in the past, have the means of delivering those weapons, have been determined to wipe out exactly the places that were attacked by chemical weapons," said Biden.

This is the highest level of attack against the Assad regime so far.

Biden said national security is strengthened when it holds accountable those who violate international norms that are the foundation of global security, and ultimately, American security.

"Instead of allowing UN inspectors immediate access, the (Syrian) government has repeatedly shelled the sites of the attack and blocked the investigation for five days," he said.

"At the direction of US President Barack Obama the national security team have been in close touch with its foreign counterparts, he said.

"The President believes and I believe that those who use chemical weapons against defenceless men, women and children should and must be held accountable," Biden said.

The White House Press Secretary Jay Carney told reporters that the violation of an international norm merits a response.

"It is our view that the use of chemical weapons on the scale that we have seen now, on August 21st in Syria, merits a response.

"It has to be clear that there's a consequence to that clear violation of international norms, so that the goal here is to make clear that this is unacceptable, that it is a red line that has been crossed.

"And it is a red line that was established by 198 nations, 98% of the world's population," Carney said.

"To allow it to happen without a response would be to give a green light to the Assad regime and other potential users of chemical weapons that there will be no consequences to the use of chemical weapons," he asserted.