UN, December 14. /TASS/. The Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW)’s approach to the investigation into the purported use of chemical weapons in Syria is a "propaganda stunt," Russia’s UN envoy, Vasily Nebenzya, has said.
"Gentlemen, all this is so clumsy," he told his colleagues during the UN Security Council session, commenting on the organization's probe into the latest alleged chlorine attack in Aleppo. "Your propaganda stunt is more than obvious."
"When a staged chemical attack was carried out in Eastern Ghouta [in April], the Syrian government was blamed for it," he continued. "The results of this investigation are still unknown. Experts are still gathering something… Maybe, because admitting that it was a provocation would mean sharing the responsibility for the illegal aggression, to which this provocation was used as a pretext."
"Now that we have reliable information about the use of chlorine projectiles by militants, who also used them in the past - and this was confirmed by our foreign partners, too - they invented a new tactics: to accuse Syria and Russia of misinformation and falsifications," Nebenzya added.
According to Syrian media, militants from the Idlib de-escalation zone launched projectiles filled a toxic substance - presumably, chlorine - at residential areas of Aleppo. As a result, more than 70 people were hospitalized, according to Syrian doctors. The country’s governmental news agency SANA said 107 civilians were taken to city hospitals.
The terrorists who perpetrated the attack were destroyed by an air strike of the Russian Aerospace Forces, stationed in Syria.
The Russian Foreign Ministry has dismissed as "absurd" all accusations against Moscow, voiced by US officials after the incident.