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MOSCOW/DAMASCUS. — Russia hopes the probe results of UN experts in Syria will clarify chemical weapons use in the country, the Russian Foreign Ministry said yesterday. Moscow expects the investigation to help remove speculation on the use of chemical weapons in Syria, which will create a positive background for progress towards political settlement of the Syria crisis, Foreign Ministry spokesperson Alexander Lukashevich told reporters.
According to the Russian diplomat, the Syrian government is ready to co-operate with UN inspectors in the probe “as comprehensively as possible.”
The Syrian authorities also vowed to provide sufficient support to UN experts, including documents that recorded the incident in Khan al-Asal, Lukashevich added.
A UN team of chemical weapons inspectors, headed by Swedish expert Ake Sellstrom, started working in Damascus on Monday. UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said the team will investigate the alleged chemical weapons use on March 19 in Khan al-Assal and attacks in two other locations, which were still kept secret for security reasons.
The Syrian opposition accused President Bashar al-Assad’s forces of killing 1,300 people in chemical attacks in suburbs of Damascus on Wednesday, a charge denied by the Syrian government. The Russian Foreign Ministry suggested the reported chemical attack on Wednesday was “planned provocation” by rebels against the government and called for “objective and professional investigation” into the allegations.
Meanwhile, Syria yesterday came under intense pressure to allow UN inspectors to visit the site of an alleged chemical weapons attack near Damascus which the opposition says left hundreds dead and provoked revulsion around the world.
A US official cited by the Wall Street Journal said there were “strong indications” that the government had carried out a chemical weapons attack, after the opposition reported more than 1,300 people killed by poisonous gases in rebel-held towns east of Damascus on Wednesday. Damascus has vehemently denied it unleashed chemical weapons, with a high ranking security source saying that to do so while a UN inspections team is working inside the country would be “political suicide”.
“All analysts say that it is not in our current interest to use chemical weapons while the commission is on the ground,” he added.
France said it is seeking a reaction with “force” if allegations by the National Coalition, the main opposition group, of a massacre involving chemical weapons are confirmed.
“If it is proven, France’s position is that there must be a reaction, a reaction that could take the form of a reaction with force,” French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius told BFM-TV, although he ruled out the use of ground troops.
There has been no immediate independent confirmation of the attack but videos and photographs posted online by activists showed scenes of people foaming at the mouth and of bodies laid out in long lines. — Xinhua/AFP.
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