MOSCOW, April 12. /TASS/. The United States does not have any evidence to prove Syria’s involvement in the chemical weapons incident in the Idlib Governorate, Russian Federation Council (upper house of parliament) Speaker Valentina Matviyenko told reporters.
When commenting on the Federation Council’s statement concerning the US missile attack on a Syrian air base, she said that "we could not keep silent." "From the very beginning, Russia has been insisting on an immediate and impartial investigation aimed at establishing those involved in the chemical attack. The US does not have any evidence to prove that it was the Syrian authorities who did this," Matviyenko said.
Earlier on Wednesday, the Federation Council adopted a statement slamming the US attack as an aggression against a sovereign state. In this connection, the Russian senators called on other countries’ parliaments to condemn the missile attack.
On April 7, US President Donald Trump ordered a strike on Syria’s Shayrat military air base located in the Homs Governorate. The attack, involving 59 Tomahawk Land Attack Missiles (TLAM), came as a response to the alleged use of chemical weapons in the Idlib Governorate on April 4.
The US authorities believe that the airstrike on Idlib was launched from the Shayrat air base.
The Syrian military denied its involvement in the attack. Russia’s Defense Ministry said that on April 4, the Syrian air force had delivered an airstrike on the eastern outskirts of the town of Khan Shaykhun to destroy militant facilities used to produce chemical bombs. These bombs were sent to Iraq and were previously used in Aleppo.
Russia strongly opposed the US missile strike. Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that Moscow considered the attack to be an act of aggression against a sovereign state. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, in turn, said that the aggression was carried out under a false pretext.