Will Anything Happen Now?

The UN committee investigating the use of chemical weapons in Syria announced this morning that if has verified 39 instances of such use.  Of the 39, 33 of the uses were confirmed to be by the Assad forces.  The remaining 6 were not attributed to anyone else, but there was insufficient evidence to come to a final conclusion as to who used the forbidden weapons.  Even in Idlib, the site of the current major battle, there have been confirmed uses of the chemical weapons by the Assad forces.

For the last two years, Assad, the Russians and the Iranians have denied that Assad used chemical weapons in the civil war.  They claimed that the supposed use was either by the rebels or was a lie told by the USA.  Now, the UN investigators have issued a report which confirms what was already apparent:  Assad has no problem gassing his own people in order to win the civil war.

The real question is whether or not there will be any consequences for Assad (and Russia and Iran) now that there is no doubt that the weapons were used.  Most likely the answer is no unless there is further use of poison gas.  The report by the UN certainly makes it more likely that should gas be used again, the Trump administration will smash the Assad forces with a major blow.  The choice seems to be up to Assad.