The United Nations investigation into the August 21 chemical weapons attack on rebel-controlled Damascus suburbs more or less conclusively demonstrated that the regime was behind the launch. The rocket trajectories led back to Syrian army positions. The chemical components point to Syrian army sophistication. Pentagon sources were even able to reverse engineer the type of rocket used, and to conclude that it was based on an Iranian blueprint.

The U.N. inspectors’ mandate did not allow them to assign responsibility for the chemical attack, but U.N. Secretary GeneralBan Ki-Moon However, stopped just short of explicitly calling out the Bashar al-Assad regime.

The Russians are having none of it:

Mr Lavrov said no decision on military intervention should be made before all the evidence had been considered. “We want objective professional assessment of the events of 21 of August. We have serious grounds to believe this was a provocation… But the truth needs to be established and this will be a test of the future work of the Security Council.”

Russian position makes it unlikely that any robust action against Syria will escape Moscow’s veto inside the U.N. Security Council. The status quo then involves trying to implement the disarmament deal struck by Secretary of State John Kerry and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov.

Analysts have not been kind regarding the sustainability – and even the physical possibility – of that agreement.

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