Red Line by Joby Warrick review – Syria, spies… and sarin

The story of how the US failed in its mission to eradicate chemical weapons in Syria, which descended into civil war 10 years ago, is bleak but engrossing

On 21 August 2013, at least 1,400 Syrians, including hundreds of children, were killed in Ghouta, east of Damascus. It was two-and-half years since the Arab spring uprising had begun against Bashar al-Assad. Regime forces used sarin, an internationally banned nerve agent, to target an opposition stronghold. And thereby hangs quite a tale.

Barack Obama had already called on Assad to step aside" and warned in 2012 that the use of chemical weapons would be crossing a red line" - which would warrant military intervention. But the Democrat in the White House failed to carry out his threat, which was initially supported by allies, including Britain. Obama ended up welcoming an offer from Vladimir Putin to deal with this problem.