Russia urges UN to satisfy Syria’s request for probe into chemical attack

Russia says the UN must respond to Syria’s ‘specific’ request for an investigation into the use of chemical weapons by militants that killed over two dozen people in the northwestern province of Aleppo in March.

“We insist on satisfying the specific request from the government of Syria for an investigation into this incident,” Voice of Russia quoted Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov as saying during a Thursday press conference in the Hungarian capital, Budapest.

On March 19, some 25 people were killed and many others injured when militants fired missiles containing a chemical substance into a village near the provincial capital city of Aleppo, according to a report by Syria’s official news agency SANA.

“Possibly, in March chemical weapons or chemical toxicants were used near Aleppo, something that the government of Syria reported and asked the UN to investigate that specific incident,” the Russian foreign minister stated.

Lavrov said that UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon “agreed to launch such an investigation, saying that it was possible.” The Russian official added, “But just in a couple of days, he said that he needed access to all the facilities and all the people.”

Moscow says the UN demand for an expanded access to all the Syrian territories will impede the investigation into the issue of chemical weapons used in Syria.

The Syrian government has also rejected the UN demand for an expanded investigation into the issue all over the country.

The Russian foreign minister further described the delays in launching the probe as an attempt to impose Iraq’s scenario on Syria, referring to the US-led invasion of Iraq in 2003 based on false claims that there were weapons of mass destruction in the country.

“This is wrong and reminds us of those resolutions the UN Security Council passed over Iraq,” Lavrov said.

The Israeli regime and the UK have claimed that the Syrian government may have used chemical weapons against the foreign-backed militants. US President Barack Obama has also said there is “evidence that chemical weapons have been used inside of Syria, but we don’t know how they were used, when they were used, who used them.”

However, Syrian Information Minister Omran al-Zoabi said on April 27 that the claim against Syria was “inconsistent with reality and a barefaced lie.”