Swedish scientist to head U.N. Syria chemical weapons probe

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has named Swedish scientist Ake Sellstrom to head a U.N. investigation into allegations that chemical weapons were used in Syria, Ban's spokesman said on Tuesday.
"He is an accomplished scientist with a solid background in disarmament and international security," U.N. spokesman Martin Nesirky said.
The United Nations said last week it would investigate Syrian allegations that rebels used chemical arms in an attack near the northern city of Aleppo, but Western countries sought a probe of all claims about the use of such arms, including rebel charges that the government forces used them.
If an investigation adds credibility to the rebels' claims that the government has used chemical weapons, it would represent another blow to Bashar al-Assad's efforts to retain power. If it turned out the rebels have used them, it could make countries even more reluctant to support the opposition.
It was not immediately clear who else would be on Sellstrom's team. Russia said that Russian and Chinese experts should be part of the investigation, but Moscow's U.N. Ambassador Vitaly Churkin said that Russia would "most likely not" be represented.
Sellstrom was a chief inspector for UNSCOM, the U.N. inspection team that investigated and dismantled Iraq's biological and chemical weapons programs in the 1990s.
Sellstrom also worked with UNMOVIC, the U.N. group that returned to Iraq in 2002 and found no solid evidence that Baghdad had revived its weapons-of-mass-destruction programs before the 2003 U.S.-led invasion as Washington and London alleged at the time.
Nesirky said Sellstrom's investigation would be technical, not a criminal investigation, looking at whether chemical weapons were used and not at who may have used them.
France and Britain wrote to Ban to draw his attention to an alleged attack near Damascus, as well as one in Homs in late December. The rebels blame Syria's government for those incidents as well as the Aleppo attack.