WASHINGTON - The US State Department
on Tuesday said it had no reason to believe Syrian government
charges that rebels had used chemical weapons in the country's
civil war, but said it was still studying allegations from the
opposition that Syrian armed forces had used the weapons.
Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland called the charges an
effort by Syrian President Bashar Assad's government to
discredit its opponents.
Nuland, portraying the
Assad government as increasingly
beleaguered, said Washington is "quite concerned" that it would
resort to non-conventional weapons.