U.N. Inspectors officially stated they'd found "clear and convincing evidence," that sarin gas was used to attack men, women and children living in a rebel-held suburb of Damascus.
U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon reported the act was a "war crime" in a statement following the inspectors' report.
According to the Los Angeles Times, hundreds of Syrian civilian citizens died in the Aug. 21. attack that the White House maintained was executed by President Bashar al-Assad.
During a meeting with the Security Council, Ban expounded upon the results that U.N. officials unearthed while probing the aftermath of the chemical attacks.
"The conclusion is that chemical weapons have been used in the ongoing conflict between the parties in the Syrian Arab Republic...against civilians, including children, on a relatively large scale," the report read. "In particular, the environmental, chemical and medical samples we have collected provide clear and convincing evidence that surface to surface rockets containing the nerve agent sarin were used."
The report also stated that the western suspicion that international law against chemical weaponry had been broken was "unequivocally and objectively" confirmed, the LA Times reported.
The inspectors did not name which side - regime or the rebel forces - executed the chemical attack.
Russian officials have firmly stated that the Assad Regime was not responsible for the attacks, while Washington staunchly disagrees. President Assad has repeatedly denied his involvement in the use of chemical weapons, claiming that the rebels used the attack to gain support from the West.
Ban received the report on Sunday, just one day after Secretary of State John Kerry and his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov came to an agreement on the plan to lead Syria into agreeing with the Chemical Weapons Convention, which states that the use of chemical weapons is illegal within the international community. Syria has stated it will also hand over chemical weapons to U.N. control.
The significance of this confirmation? Now, there exists official proof that international law was violated in Syria, giving world powers even more steam to take chemical weapons out of Damascus and place them in the possession of the international community.
