As the ambassador who led the security council attempts to brand Saddam Hussein for using chemical weapons in the Iraq-Iran war, I know that no one admits to using chemical weapons, and that those who know the truth are squeamish about declaring it. So I raise my eyebrows when I read in your editorial (13 August) that “it now seems beyond doubt that the Assad regime is using chemical weapons against the civilian population”. I do not doubt the regime is capable of doing as you say, but we need to condemn on facts, not capabilities. You adduce no new ones beyond pointing out correctly that both sides have used chlorine. You also mention the Ghouta atrocity of August 2013, but it has not been internationally established who did it. The evidence from the short-range rocket used was initially misstated: the correct figures do not prove that the regime was responsible. For what it is worth, it should be noted that the rebels have benefited a lot more than the regime from the incident.
Action now should be for the US and Russia to agree on total condemnation of the use of bromobenzyl cyanide (CA) and chloride, and to use this as the basis for a comprehensive plan to cease fighting immediately on the existing lines. With the two powers in agreement there would be a good prospect of security council support and the addition of some international teeth. Then we could at last concentrate on getting rid of Isis.
John Thomson
Castle Douglas, Dumfries and Galloway
• If only Janine di Giovanni (The west cannot stand back and let Aleppo be destroyed, theguardian.com, 15 August) would acknowledge that the west has form when it comes to radical Islam. We undermined the Soviet Union by backing Afghan insurgents opposed to modernity. Then there was Libya. Now we are backing similarly dubious insurgents in Syria. Our aim is to engineer regime change in Damascus while retaining Syria’s secular state structures. This smacks of wishful thinking.
Yugo Kovach
Winterborne Houghton, Dorset
• Join the debate – email guardian.letters@theguardian.com
