All news

Diplomat states 'practically no grounds' for accusing Damascus of chemical attacks

The Russian diplomat believes that the West intends to produce maximum complications for Damascus

UNITED NATIONS, January 17. /TASS/. Washington is operating a practically non-existence body of evidence when it charges the Syrian government with the use of chamical weapons, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said on Monday.

He indicated that the issue of combat use of poisonous chemical agents in Syria had been discussed at his meetings with the US Acting Under Secretary of State for Arms Control, Thomas Countryman, and UN Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary Anita Friedt, who accused Russia without any good reasons with denying the cases of "combat use of chemical weapons by the Damascus government".

"We call attention to the fact their body of evidence isn't simply thin or full of holllows, but that it's practically non-existent," Ryabkov said.

He voiced the conviction that the West is pressing forward with the issue to produce maximum complications for Damascus.

"We stay away from these geopolitical games," he said. "The objectives are fake, the methods are indecent, and we have to call a spade a spade and, on top of that, to warn that the attempts to press for an aggravation will be futile and will only worsen the already tense climate at the UN Security Council."