UNITED NATIONS (AA) - United Nations (UN) Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said on Friday that he believed the recently-done report of UN mission of inspectors probing chemical weapons use in Syria would be an "overwhelming" one to confirm that chemical weapons were used in Syria on August 21.
"I believe that the report will be an overwhelming, overwhelming report that chemical weapons [were] used even though I cannot publicly say at this time before I receive this report," Ban said in his remarks at UN Women's International Forum.
He was referring to the report on chemical weapons use in Syria, which has recently been completed by the UN expert team led by Ake Sellstrom of Sweden that went to Syria to collect evidence to determine if chemicals were used in August 21 attack on Damascus' East Ghouta suburbs that killed hundreds of people.
Ban also argued that Assad regime "has committed many crimes against humanity," without elaborating on whether it was Assad regime forces or opposition forces who used chemical gases in the August 21 attack.
"Therefore, I'm sure that there will be surely the process of accountability when everything is over," Ban added.
Besides, UN Secretary General Deputy Spokesperson Farhan Haq said that Ban did not have Sellstrom's report yet but the UN chief "has been in touch with different people including the experts," namely Sellstrom, and urged him to expedite his conclusions.
The statement of the UN chief came as United States Secretary of State John Kerry proceeded talks with his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov in Geneva aimed at securing Syria's chemical weapons arsenal by placing them under international control, which was welcomed and accepted by Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.
On the second day of the gathering of American and Russian chemical weapons experts in Geneva to bargain over technical details critical to reach a deal, Kerry and Lavrov met with UN-Arab League envoy Lakhdar Brahimi to review political developments and organize a new international conference to support the establishment of a Syrian transitional government.
