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RF ForMin urges to stop speculations over Syria and check reports about use of chemical weapons

The Syrian government is ready for the work
Photo EPA/ITAR-TASS Archive
Photo EPA/ITAR-TASS Archive

MOSCOW, July 13 (Itar-Tass) - Russia urges to ensure that the reports about the possible use of chemical weapons in Syria will be checked, Russian Foreign Ministry official Alexander Lukashevich said on Saturday.

The Syrian government is ready for the work. U.N. experts are invited to Damascus for consultations, he noted.

Commenting on the recent statement of State Department spokesperson Jen Psaki that Russia allegedly blocked access for a U.N. mission of experts to Syria for investigation over the reports about the use of chemical weapons in the country, Lukashevich noted that the authors of assessments of such a kind ignored or deliberately distorted the situation. According to Lukashevich, the statement is an incorrect interpretation of the real state of affairs over the international investigation in connection with the reports about the use of chemical weapons.

When in March the Syrian government asked the United Nations to conduct an investigation into a certain case of the use of chemical weapons in Aleppo, the matter was artificially politicized, and unacceptable conditions were set for Damascus. Eventually, there was no investigation, though Damascus's request was well documented and well-founded. It is confirmed by the results of the study conducted by Russian experts at the Syrian request, the diplomat noted.

Materials of the study results have been handed over to the U.N. secretary-general. Unlike the Western data received, as the partners confessed, from reporters, and which were handed over from one to another, and nobody, including the authors, can guarantee the information is objective, Russia's analysis is based on samples taken directly at the site and conducted in a certified laboratory, the diplomat said.