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Probably the best that can now be hoped for is an investigation that takes weeks or even months to report, allowing passions in the meantime to die down.The UN says it will only begin a Syria probe with the OPCW after the use of chemicals is confirmed. Presumable that means they will have to visit the crime scene (if the video evidence is not enough to count as confirmation). Good luck with that! As they all know, the area is controlled by al-Qaeda. Maybe they can send John McCain over there to ask his buddies for a favor.
That probably is the thinking of the three European members of the G7 - Germany, France and Italy - that are pressing hardest for the investigation. Sigmar Gabriel, Germany's foreign minister, had a telephone conversation with Russian Foreign Minister Lavrov on Sunday, when Lavrov appears to have pressed the idea of an investigation on him. On the question of the need for such an investigation the Europeans, somewhat unusually, have sided with the Russians against the Americans, almost certainly because German public opinion is known to oppose the US missile strikes.
Though no one should have any high expectations of what the results of an investigation into the alleged Khan Sheikhoun attack will lead to, Russian statements since the attack do suggest that the Russians are very confident of their facts and the fact that the Europeans are calling for an investigation after the US missile strike is hardly a ringing endorsement of the US claims President Assad is guilty.
Also it is fair to point out that the UN inquiry into the attack on the humanitarian convoy in September 2016, though placed under intense pressure and working under the severest constraints, proved unexpectedly impartial, clearing the Russians entirely and suggesting the Syrians bombed the convoy by mistake. That almost certainly happened because the head of that inquiry - an Indian military officer - was a tough and principled man, who insisted on the inquiry doing its job properly. Whilst the US and its Western allies will doubtless be working overtime to ensure that any inquiry into the Khan Sheikhoun attack is not headed by such a person, since the inquiry will be set up by the UN the Russians will also have a say, and it is not completely inconceivable that it might in the end do its job properly.
Comment: Italian Foreign Minister Angelino Alfano conveniently forgets that either the "moderate" rebels or Turkey & terrorist groups were pretty much the only ones violating Syrian ceasefire.
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