International investigators tomorrow are to head to the site of an alleged chemical weapons attack in Syria that provoked a US-led missile strike.
A UN security team is to inspect the route to Douma, a suburb of the capital, Damascus, before the fact-finding mission from the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) goes there, the Russian state news agency TASS reported Russian General Igor Kirillov as saying.
The OPCW yesterday said that Russia and Syria had blocked the inspectors’ access to Douma, a former opposition stronghold, citing security issues. They arrived in Damascus on Saturday.
Photo: AP
The US and France say they have evidence that poison gas was used in the April 7 attack in the opposition-held town of Douma, killing dozens of people, and that Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s military was behind it.
However, they have made none of that evidence public, even after they, along with Britain, bombarded sites they said were linked to Syria’s chemical weapons program.
Syria and its ally Russia deny any chemical attack took place, and Russian officials went even further, accusing Britain of staging a “fake” chemical attack.
British Prime Minister Theresa May accused the two countries — whose forces now control the town east of Damascus — of trying to cover up evidence.
The lack of access to Douma by the OPCW has left unanswered questions about the attack.
OPCW Director-General Ahmet Uzumcu on Monday said Syrian and Russian officials cited “pending security issues” in keeping its inspectors from reaching Douma.
“The team has not yet deployed to Douma,” Uzumcu told an executive council meeting of the OPCW in The Hague.
Instead, Syrian authorities offered them 22 people to interview as witnesses, he said, adding that he hoped “all necessary arrangements will be made ... to allow the team to deploy to Douma as soon as possible.”
Russian military police were ready to help protect the OPCW experts on their visit to Douma, said Major General Yuri Yevtushenko of the Russian military’s Reconciliation Center in Syria.
Russian Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Sergei Ryabkov said the inspectors could not go to the site because they needed approval from the UN Department for Safety and Security.
He denied that Russia was hampering the mission and suggested the approval was held up because of the Western airstrikes.
“As far as I understand, what is hampering a speedy resolution of this problem is the consequences of the illegal, unlawful military action that Great Britain and other countries conducted on Saturday,” Ryabkov said.
However, UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric said the world body has “provided the necessary clearances for the OPCW team to go about its work in Douma. We have not denied the team any request for it to go to Douma.”
Meanwhile, a false alarm set off Syrian air defense systems early yesterday, the military said, denying earlier reports of an “outside aggression” and incoming airstrikes and underscoring the chaotic nature of the multiple actors in Syria’s theater of war.
Syrian state media reported hours earlier that the country confronted yet another assault, shooting down missiles over the central region of Homs and a suburb of Damascus before dawn.
The reports did not say who carried out the alleged strikes, adding to jitters in the Middle East.
The Syrian Central Media said six missiles targeted the Shayrat air base in Homs, adding that Syrian air defenses shot down most of them. The Syrian outlet also reported another, separate airstrike on the Dumayr air base in a suburb in Damascus.
The Pentagon denied any US military activity in the area.
There was no comment from Israel, which frequently carries out airstrikes in Syria, but rarely acknowledges them.
Only hours later, Syrian TV carried a military statement saying that air defenses fired a number of missiles because of a “false alarm,” without providing more information.
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