DHAKA: The head of the Arab League has said military intervention in Syria is not an option, a further blow to United States` efforts to act over a chemical weapons attack in Damascus last month.

Following emergency meetings in Cairo on Monday, secretary general, Nabil Al-Araby, said the League held the Syrian regime of Bashar al-Assad responsible for the August 21 attack, but a ‘military option is out of the question’.

He said that United Nations inspectors who had investigated the attack site ‘do not have the powers to say who committed this... so, all the inspectors will say is that chemical weapons have been used’.

His comments came a day after the League stopped short of calling for military intervention in Syria, instead asking the UN and the international community to take ‘deterrent’ measures under international law.

Al-Araby added that he considered that only the UN, ‘as the official representative of the international community’ could ‘take action to stop those who committed this crime’.

Russia, a permanent member of the UN Security Council and an ally of Assad, and has said there is no evidence that the chemical attack was launched by the Assad regime.

BDST: 2047 HRS, SEPT 02, 2013
RoR/Jck