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French president refuses to share intelligence on Damascus 'guilt' for Douma — Lavrov

Earlier, Macron announced in public about the ‘irrefutable evidence’ substantiating the use of chemical weapons in Syria’s Douma by Assad’s regime, Lavrov said

MOSCOW, April 14. /TASS/. French President Emmanuel Macron has refused to provide his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin with intelligence proving Damascus’ alleged guilt for the incident in the Syrian town of Douma, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said on Saturday at the annual Assembly of the Council on Foreign and Defense Policy.

"France’s President [Emmanuel] Macron, who announced in public about the ‘irrefutable evidence’ substantiating the use of chemical weapons in Syria’s Douma by [Syrian President Bashar] Assad’s regime,’ spoke on the phone with Russian President Vladimir Putin," Lavrov said.

"During their talk on April 13, the Russian president referred to the French leader’s public assertions that those facts existed and asked to share them, because if it were true, we would be the first who would be determined to stymie such illegal activity, that is the use of chemical weapons," he explained.

"The answer was as follows, "It is a secret. We cannot provide the information since it is a secret and what is more, the secret is not ours," Lavrov stated.

"Well, that was not our secret, but nevertheless it was used for delivering strikes," the minister said. "Along with this, everyone understands that the OPCW inspectors, who had arrived in Beirut, should have visit the scene so as to make sure that evidence in favor or against the use of chemical weapons could be present there or not."