UN chief warns against war as world probes Syria gas attack

The United Nations secretary-general today warned against a "full-blown military escalation" in Syria, as France and the United States said an alleged chemical attack must not go unanswered.

Russia warned the West not to make any "dangerous" moves against its ally Bashar al-Assad's regime and claimed to have proof that the attack had been staged by rescue workers acting on Britain's behalf.

Experts from the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) are on their way to Syria to probe the alleged chlorine strike on the then rebel-held suburb of Douma, which took place nearly a week ago.

But, with the British government now estimating that the death toll from the attack has risen to 75, US President Donald Trump and other western leaders are contemplating punitive military action.

This would increase the risk of a clash with the Russian forces in Syria to defend Assad, and UN chief Antonio Guterres warned the Security Council to beware a "full-blown military escalation."
But France's UN ambassador Francois Delattre told the council that in choosing once again to use banned chemical weapons against civilians, Assad's regime had "reached a point of no-return." And US ambassador Nikki Haley, while allowing that Washington is still weighing its options and pursuing its own investigation, warned her colleagues, "At one point, you have to do something."