By Matthew Schofield. This article was first published on MacClatchy.
Russia says it has compiled a 100-page
report detailing what it says is evidence that Syrian rebels, not
forces loyal to President Bashar Assad, were behind a deadly sarin gas
attack in an Aleppo suburb earlier this year.
In a statement posted on the Russian
Foreign Ministry’s website late Wednesday. Russia said the report had
been delivered to the United Nations in July and includes detailed
scientific analysis of samples that Russian technicians collected at
the site of the alleged attack, Khan al Asal.
Russia said its investigation of the March
19 incident was conducted under strict protocols established by the
Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, the international
agency that governs adherence to treaties prohibiting the use of
chemical weapons. It said samples that Russian technicians had collected
had been sent to OPCW-certified laboratories in Russia.
The report itself was not released. But
the statement drew a pointed comparison between what it said was the
scientific detail of the report and the far shorter intelligence
summaries that the United States, Britain and France have released to
justify their assertion that the Syrian government launched chemical
weapons against Damascus suburbs on Aug. 21. The longest of those
summaries, by the French, ran nine pages. Each relies primarily on
circumstantial evidence to make its case, and they disagree with one
another on some details, including the number of people who died in the
attack.
The Russian statement warned the United
States and its allies not to conduct a military strike against Syria
until the United Nations had completed a similarly detailed scientific
study into the Aug. 21 attack. It warned that what it called the
current “hysteria” about a possible military strike in the West was
similar to the false claims and poor intelligence that preceded the
United States invasion of Iraq.
“The Russian report is specific,” the ministry statement said. “It is a scientific and technical document.”
The statement also noted that the
attention paid to the Aug. 21 attack had diverted attention from the
investigation into the March 19 incident, which was the reason U.N.
investigators were in Syria when the more recent attack took place.
“Unfortunately, that investigation still essentially has not begun,” the statement said.
There was no immediate comment from the
United States. Independent chemical weapons experts contacted by
McClatchy said they had not had time to read the Russian document,
which was released as Secretary of State John Kerry was appearing
before the House Foreign Affairs Committee to make the Obama
administration’s case for a retaliatory strike on Syria as punishment
for the attack.
A U.N. team spent four days late last
month investigating the Aug. 21 incident. The samples it collected from
the site and alleged victims of the attack are currently being examined
at OPCW labs in Europe. U.N. Secretary General Ban ki-Moon has urged
the United States to delay any strike until after the results of that
investigation are known.
More -
https://therealnews.com/russia-says-its-compiled-100-page-report-blaming-syrian-rebels-for-a-chemical-weapons-attack
