PRESS RELEASES AND NEWS
05.09.2013
Russian MFA on the investigation of the chemical weapons use in SyriaWe 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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