Two purported intercepts of communications that appeared to implicate the Syrian government received prominent media coverage. One was a phone call allegedly between Syrian officials which Israel's Unit 8200 was said to have intercepted and passed to the US. The other was a phone call which the German Bundesnachrichtendienst said it had intercepted, between a high-ranking representative of Hezbollah and the Iranian embassy, in which the purported Hezbollah official said that poison gas had been used and that Assad's order to attack with chemical weapons had been a strategic error.On 29 August the Associated Press reported that, according to two U.S. intelligence officials and two other U.S. officials, the U.S. intercept was a conversation between "low-level" Syrian officials with no direct link to the upper echelons of the government or military.The Bild am Sonntag newspaper subsequently reported that German intelligence indicated that Assad had likely not ordered the attacks. According to Bild, "intelligence interception specialists" relying on communications intercepted by the German vessel Oker said that Syrian military commanders had repeatedly been asking permission to launch chemical attacks for around four months, with permission always being denied from the presidential palace. The sources concluded that 21 August attack had probably not been approved by Bashar al-Assad.
Dr. Amesh Adalja, a senior associate for the Center for Biosecurity at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, said the reported symptoms are a textbook case of nerve-agent poisoning.Médecins Sans Frontières Director of Operations Bart Janssens stated that MSF "can neither scientifically confirm the cause of these symptoms nor establish who is responsible for the attack. However, the reported symptoms of the patients, in addition to the epidemiological pattern of the events – characterised by the massive influx of patients in a short period of time, the origin of the patients, and the contamination of medical and first aid workers – strongly indicate mass exposure to a neurotoxic agent."Gwyn Winfield, Editorial Director at CBRNe World, analysed some videos from the day of the attack and wrote on the magazine's website: "It is difficult to define [an] agent by the signs and symptoms. Clearly respiratory distress, some nerve spasms and a half hearted washdown (involving water and bare hands?!), but it could equally be a riot control agent as a [chemical warfare agent]."
The continuous fighting has severely limited the quality of medical care for injured survivors of the attack. A month after the attack, approximately 450 survivors still required medical attention for lingering symptoms such as respiratory and vision problems. By early October 2013, the 13,000 residents of Moadhamiya, one of the places targeted in the August attack, had been surrounded by pro-government forces and under siege for five months. Severe malnourishment and medical emergencies become pressing as all supply lines had stopped. Care for chronic symptoms of sarin exposure had become "just one among a sea of concerns."As countries such as the United States and the United Kingdom debated their response to the attacks, they encountered significant popular and legislative resistance to military intervention. In particular, British Prime Minister David Cameron's request to the House of Commons to use military force was declined by a 285–272 margin. UK government policy subsequently focused on providing humanitarian assistance inside Syria and to refugees in neighboring countries.Within a month of the attacks, Syria agreed to join the Chemical Weapons Convention and allow all its stockpiles to be destroyed. The destruction began under OPCW supervision on 6 October 2013. On 23 June 2014, the last shipment of Syria's declared chemical weapons was shipped out of the country for destruction.  By 18 August 2014, all toxic chemicals were destroyed aboard the US naval vessel MV Cape Ray.Nine months after the attack, there is evidence that mothers from the affected areas are giving birth to children with defects and as stillborn.
The 7th Report of the Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Syrian Arab Republic, a different group than the UN fact-finding mission, stated the sarin used in the Ghouta attack bore the "same unique hallmarks" as the sarin used in the Khan al-Assal attack. The report, dated 12 February 2014, also indicated that the perpetrators likely had access to the chemical weapons stockpile of the Syrian military. These conclusions were based on the fact-finding mission's evidence, as the Commission of Inquiry did not conduct its own investigation of either chemical attack.
According to Human Rights Watch, hundreds of kilograms of sarin were used in the attack, which it said suggested government responsibility, as opposition forces were not known to possess significant amounts of sarin.The Russian government dismissed the initial UN report after it was released, calling it "one-sided" and "distorted." On 17 September, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov reiterated his government's belief that the opposition carried out the attacks as a "provocation." The United Nations High Representative for Disarmament Affairs Angela Kane said the inspection team would review Russia's objections.An August 2013 Scientific American article described difficulties that could arise when attempting to identify the manufacturer of sarin from soil or tissue samples.An Iranian chemical weapons expert, Abbas Foroutan, said in October 2013 that the UN should publish more details about the investigation than were provided in the report, including victims' pulse rates and blood pressure and their response to the atropine treatment, the victims' levels of acetylcholinesterase (sarin is an acetylcholinesterase inhibitor) and more technical details on the lab testing process.
マクドナルドはその事業規模と影響力の大きさから、しばしばアメリカの大量消費文化やアメリカ帝国による経済支配（アメリカニゼーション）の象徴と考えられ、各国の民族主義派・保守派や、環境保護活動家、反グローバリズム運動家の攻撃目標になるケースが少なくない。反米デモ活動では、真っ先にマクドナルドの店舗が襲撃される（これはケンタッキーフライドチキンやザ コカ・コーラ カンパニーも同様である）。特に湾岸戦争やイラク戦争などでアメリカが他国に侵攻する期間、中東の店舗は放火されたり破壊されたりした。またイギリスでは、批判的な活動家がロンドンにある店舗を爆破し、逮捕された。更にイラク戦争以降、ロンドン、パリ、チューリッヒなどの店舗前で、反米デモが激しく行われており、メキシコシティでは「ハンバーガー1つがアメリカ軍の銃弾1発」という言葉が生まれた。また、大韓民国環境団体の会員らがマクドナルドの大型看板に登って「M」字の下に「AD WAR」と書かれた垂れ幕をかけて「MAD WAR（狂った戦争）」と叫ぶデモ活動をした。1999年5月7日、コソボ紛争における「アライド・フォース作戦」の際に、アメリカ空軍機が駐ユーゴスラビア中華人民共和国大使館を誤爆したときは、北京市でマクドナルド10店舗が、中国人により襲撃される事態となった。またファストフードは、その手軽さと高カロリーが故に「肥満の主犯」というイメージが植えつけられることになった。こうした拡大する外国の反感を宥めるため、マクドナルドは飲食の材料をできるだけその国で調達し、メニューもその国の文化を考慮した戦略を取っている。肉類を避けるインド人のためには、ベジタブルバーガーも開発した。