The Syrian President, Bashar al-Assad, would be held responsible for the death of hundreds of people in the chemical attack near Damascus on August 21 even if he did not order it, the United States has said.
"We ultimately, of course, hold President Assad responsible for the use of chemical weapons by his regime against his own people, regardless of where the command and control lies," Marie Harf, State Department Deputy Spokesperson told reporters at her daily news conference.
"Obviously, we've said that the regime maintains control of these weapons and that the opposition, of course, doesn't have the capability to use them," she said, as the US intelligence agencies tried to figure out the details of the chemical attack.
"I don't know the answer to that," Harf said when asked if the US believes that Assad ordered this attack.
"He is ultimately held responsible for the actions of his regime," she said.
"The commander-in-chief of any military is ultimately responsible for decisions made under their leadership, even if command and control - he's not the one that pushes the button or said, "Go," on this.
I don't know what the facts are here.
I'm just, broadly speaking, saying that he is responsible for the actions of his regime.
I'm not intimately familiar with the command and control structure of the Syrian military.
But again, he is responsible ultimately for the decisions that are made," she said.
Based on multiple independent streams of information widely available the only logical conclusion is that the Assad regime itself was responsible for the use of chemical weapons in this attack, period, she asserted.
