Washington has accused Assad’s regime of a cover up, and has said it will provide more evidence of who was behind the attacks.
“Let me be clear,” US Secretary of State John Kerry said on Monday, “the indiscriminate slaughter of civilians, the killing of women and children and innocent bystanders by chemical weapons is a moral obscenity.”
“Make no mistake. President Obama believes there must be accountability for those who would use the world’s most heinous weapons against the world’s most vulnerable people.”
President Vladimir Putin of Russia, which has provided Syria’s regime with diplomatic cover by blocking UN Security Council action, was unimpressed by the mounting evidence of an atrocity.
He told British Prime Minister David Cameron on Monday there was no proof Damascus had used chemical weapons, Cameron’s office said.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has said Russia would not get involved in any military conflict, and Moscow has warned that intervention would have “catastrophic consequences” for the region.
Nevertheless, senior military officers from Western and Muslim countries began gathering in Jordan on Monday to discuss the regional impact of the war in Syria.
General Martin Dempsey, chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, was to take part, along with chiefs of staff from Britain, France, Germany, Italy and Canada, Jordanian state media said.
And a senior Israeli delegation visited the White House for high level talks on the crisis and the showdown over Iran’s controversial nuclear programme.
Amman has said, however, that its territory “will not be used as (a) launchpad for any military action against Damascus”.
Britain, meanwhile, said its armed forces were drawing up contingency plans for action in Syria and Foreign Secretary William Hague said the West could act even without full Security Council backing.
Turkey’s foreign minister, Ahmet Davutoglu, said the suspected chemical attack was a “crime against humanity” that “cannot go unpunished”.
Davutoglu had said in remarks published Monday that Turkey, a NATO member that borders Syria, would join an international coalition against it even if the Security Council failed to reach a consensus.
Meanwhile, UN chemical weapons experts postponed efforts to collect more evidence from the site of alleged attacks on the outskirts of Damascus on August 21 in which more than 300 people were reportedly killed.
They had been due to visit the sites again on Tuesday, but Muallem said their trip had been put off because rebels failed to guarantee their security.
The UN convoy had come under sniper fire on Monday as it tried to approach the suburb where the attack apparently took place, but managed to visit victims receiving treatment in two nearby hospitals.
The increasing signs of impending military action sparked losses on global stock markets.
In afternoon London trading, the FTSE 100 index dropped 0.64 percent, the CAC 40 index in Paris shed 2.23 percent and Frankfurt’s DAX 30 sank 1.49 percent.
New York’s Dow Jones Industrial Average opened 0.72 percent lower.
The price of oil rose, with Brent crude at one stage reaching $111.92 the highest point since early March before closing at $111.81, a gain of $1.08 on Monday.
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