The Washington Post newspaper quoted diplomats and experts saying that the Obama administration's case for arming Syria's rebels rests on unverifiable claims that the Syrian government used chemical weapons against its own people.
"The nature of the physical evidence - as well as the secrecy over how it was collected and analyzed - has opened the administration to criticism by independent experts, who say there is no reliable way to assess its authenticity," the newspaper said.
"The technical data presented by the three Western powers ( U.S, Britain and France) is of limited value to U.N. inspectors trying to determine whether Syria's combatants used chemical weapons during the country's 25-month-old conflict. Under the United Nations' terms of reference, only evidence personally collected by its inspectors can be used to fashion a final judgment," it added.
"The nature of the physical evidence - as well as the secrecy over how it was collected and analyzed - has opened the administration to criticism by independent experts, who say there is no reliable way to assess its authenticity," the newspaper said.
"The technical data presented by the three Western powers ( U.S, Britain and France) is of limited value to U.N. inspectors trying to determine whether Syria's combatants used chemical weapons during the country's 25-month-old conflict. Under the United Nations' terms of reference, only evidence personally collected by its inspectors can be used to fashion a final judgment," it added.
