France: Syrian government 'behind chemical attack'

Jean-Marc Ayrault: "France is determined to punish the use of chemical weapons''

France says the chemical attack near Damascus last month "could not have been ordered and carried out by anyone but the Syrian government".

It concludes that at least 281 deaths can be attributed to the attack.
France and the US are pushing for punitive military action, which the UK parliament rejected last week.

I think people I've spoken to within the Syrian regime quite like being eyeball-to-eyeball with the US. I think they believe President Obama is bent on attacking Syria, in fact that's what they say quite openly.
So while they describe the US decision to refer it to a vote in Congress as wisdom, they say it should also go back to the UN and that any action would be illegal if it didn't get UN authorisation.
Since the Russians have said very openly in the Security Council that they wouldn't vote to authorise anything like this, and President Obama has said he's very comfortable going ahead without a Security Council resolution, that means in a sense, in the eyes of the Syrian regime, the battle lines are now drawn, and they are trying to get themselves ready for whatever happens.

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has again denied carrying out a chemical attack, telling the French newspaper Le Figaro it would have been "illogical".

He also warned that foreign military action could ignite the "powder keg" of the wider region.