Russian FM blasts west over Syrian chemical weapons
http://themoscownews.com/russia/20130826/191879876/Russian-FM-blasts-west-over-Syrian-chemical-weapons.html
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov on Monday slammed
Western countries for suggesting the Syrian government carried out a chemical
attack earlier this month without offering convincing proof to back up these
claims.
“Any reports about the use of chemical weapons in Syria must be investigated most thoroughly and
professionally, and the results presented to the UN Security Council,” Lavrov
said at a press conference in Moscow.
“Participants of the G8 summit who renege on this agreement
are de-facto trying to take on the functions of both the investigators and the
Security Council,” Lavrov said. Russia
failed to resolve its differences over Syria
with its partners – including the US,
France and Britain – at
the G8 summit in June.
A chemical attack killed 355 in Syria last Wednesday, according to
Doctors Without Borders. The regime of President Bashar Assad and the local
insurgency, locked in a bloody standoff since 2011, blamed each other for the
attack.
Officials in the US
and France
were cited as saying that Assad’s government was behind the attack.
US President Barack Obama said previously that the US would
intervene in the Syrian conflict in the event of a chemical attack. British
media reported the country’s forces are already preparing for a joint naval
operation with the US
against Assad’s forces.
“Washington, London and Paris
have officially stated they have irrefutable proof that the Syrian authorities
are guilty [of the chemical attack], but they cannot present this proof,”
Lavrov said Friday.
A team of UN experts is currently investigating the attack
in Syria
on the ground, though their mandate is limited to confirming that the attack
took place, not establishing who was behind it.
The incident gave an
advantage to those who want to trigger foreign military action against Assad’s
regime, Lavrov said, though he added it was up to the UN to establish the real
perpetrators.
“Was it really in the interests of the Syrian government to
use chemical weapons right when the [UN] inspectors are working there?” Lavrov
said.