Russian MFA on the investigation of the chemical weapons use in Syria
We pay attention to the massive stove-piping of various information aimed at placing the responsibility for the alleged chemical weapons use in Syria on Damascus, even though the results of the UN investigation have not yet been revealed.
By such means the way is being paved for military action against Damascus.
In this view, we would like to share the main conclusions made by the Russian investigators, who analysed samples taken at the site of the March 19 attack with the use of chemical warfare gas at Khan al-Assal near Aleppo.
The Khan al-Assal attack killed at least 26 civilians and Syrian army soldiers, 86 more suffered injuries of varying severity.
On the 9 July, the results of the probe analysis carried out on the request of the Syrian government by a Russian laboratory certified by the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons were handed over to the Secretary-General of the UN after Damascus had appealed to the latter for an independent investigation of the incident.
The main conclusions of the Russian experts are as follows:
– the shell used in the incident does not belong to the standard ammunition of the Syrian army and was home-made according to type and parameters of the rocket-propelled unguided missiles manufactured in the north of Syria by the so-called Bashair al-Nasr brigade;
– RDX, which is also known as hexogen or cyclonite, was used as the bursting charge for the shell, and it is not used in standard chemical munitions;
– soil and shell samples contain the non-industrially synthesized nerve agent sarin and diisopropylfluorophosphate, which was used by Western states for producing chemical weapons during World War II.
The findings of the report are extremely specific as they mostly consist of about 100 pages of scientific and technical data from probes’ analysis. We expect that this data can substantially aid the UN investigation of the incident. Unfortunately, in effect, it has yet not started.
The attention of those who are set to place the responsibility for all chemical attacks on the Syrian government has switched to the eastern Damascus suburb of Ghouta. And again, certain states have adopted a flawed selective approach in reporting the incidents of alleged chemical weapons use.
There have been apparent attempts to cast a veil over the incidents of gas poisoning of Syrian army soldiers on 22, 24 and 25 August. They suffered poisoning after discovering materials, equipment and tanks with traces of sarin in the outskirts of Damascus.
The condition of the soldiers has been examined and documented by the UN experts group headed by Oke Sellstrom. Obviously, any objective investigation of the 21 August incident in eastern Ghouta is impossible without the consideration of all these facts.
In the view of the above, we welcome the words of UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, who said that the UN investigators group headed by Oke Sellstrom was set to return to Syria to investigate several other cases of alleged chemical weapons use, including the 19 March incident in Khan al-Assal.
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