London: British companies sold chemicals to Syria that could have been used to produ-ce the deadly nerve agent that killed 1,400 people.
The revelation was made by Daily Mail on Sunday. Between July 2004 and May 2010, the UK government issued five export licences to two companies, allowing them to sell Syria sodium fluoride, which is used to make sarin.
The UK on Saturday night admitted for the first time that the chemical was delivered to Syria — a clear breach of international protocol on the trade of dangerous substances that has been condemned as “grossly irresponsible”.
The sales were made at a time when President Bashar al-Assad was strongly suspected to be stockpiling the chemical weapons that have caused an international crisis. Thomas Docherty, MP and a member of the Commons Arms Export Controls Committee, said, “At no time should we have allowed Assad’s regime to get its hands on this substance.”
On the other hand,  some of the victims of last month’s alleged chemical attack in Syria were secretly flown to the UK for medical tests, a senior Syrian opposition leader has revealed.
British foreign secretary William Hague called for a strong response to the use of chemical weapons in Syria, saying the issue went wider than the conflict in the West Asian nation.
Elsewhere, US secretary of state John Kerry continued a diplomatic offensive in Europe to win backing for military strikes in Syria, after Washington and Paris said support for action was growing. Heading into a crucial week for US plans to launch the strikes, Kerry met Arab League ministers in Paris.
Meanwhile, analysts have said that US-led military strikes on Syria would boost all of the country’s Opposition,  including the jihadists, but would not be enough to precipitate the fall of Assad’s regime. “Strikes are highly likely to impact localised battlefields... (but) shifts on a more nationwide level are less likely, expert Aron Lund said.  
Next: US plans 3-day attack on syria from sea, air

US plans 3-day attack on syria from sea, air
Washington: The Pentagon is readying more intense and longer attacks on Syria than originally planned, set to last three days, the Los Angeles Times reported on Sunday.
War planners now aim to unleash a heavy barrage of missile strikes to be followed swiftly by additional attacks on targets that may have been missed or remain standing after the initial launch, the Times cited officials as saying.
Two US officers told the newspaper that the White House has asked for an expanded target list to include “many more” than the initial list of around 50 targets.
The move is part of an effort to obtain additional firepower to damage Bashar al-Assad’s dispersed forces.Pentagon planners are now considering using Air Force bombers, as well as five US missile destroyers currently patrolling the Mediterranean Sea, to launch missile attacks.
However, the United States is facing stiff resistance from its own population in going ahead with military intervention in war-torn Syria.   
Senate panel releases videos of chem attack
A US Senate intelligence panel has released 13 videos showing images of the chemical attack in Syria allegedly carried out by the Assad regime, as the White House pressed its case for military action in the country.
The videos, first played to the members of the Senate Intelligence Committee on Thursday were first leaked to CNN.The SIC, in a statement, said that the 13 videos were compiled by the US Open Source Center from footage taken in the Damascus suburbs on August 21, the day of the alleged attack.
“All of the videos were posted on YouTube by pro-Syrian opposition users,” the committee said.