In any conflict, the apportionment of blame for individual crimes committed against civilians to a standard of proof that would be acceptable in a court is extremely difficult, even such a high profile crime as attacks using chemical weapons have been disputed. [1] That is why the ICC typically gets involved after conflicts, rather than during them because it provides the time for thorough investigations, availability of witnesses, and means the investigators will not be at risk.  Whenever the indictment is issued, the conflict would be likely to have finished before the ICC would be able to actually have the defendants in the dock. This therefore would be no help in ending the conflict.  [1] Radia, Krit, ‘Putin Rejects Syria Chemical Weapons Accusations as ‘Utter Nonsense’’, ABC News,