Russia: UN Chem Attack Report Doesn’t Show Whodunit
TEHRAN (Tasnim) - Russia’s UN representative said the newly unveiled report on the chemical attack of August 21 in Syria offers no “bulletproof data or conclusions” on who ordered it.
“The report is diligent but very technical. It avoids categorical judgments and inferences, and it needs to be studied,” Vitaly Churkin told the Russian media at the UN headquarters in New York.
“As people examine it, everyone can draw their own conclusion, but I hope that won’t be driven by political motives.”
Churkin said that suggestions the attack was a rebel provocation “cannot be shrugged off”.
The 38-page report was compiled by a UN expert team, which inspected Damascus at the end of last month, and collected over 30 samples from victims and the environment, RT reported.
Its authors state that it found “clear and convincing evidence that surface-to-surface rockets containing the nerve agent sarin” were released on “a relatively large scale” during the August attack. The report doesn't blame either of the sides.
UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon has labeled the incident a “war crime”.
Churkin also told journalists “not to jump to conclusions” when questioned about whether Cyrillic alphabet markings, which were found on fragments of rockets reportedly used in the attack, proved that they were in possession of government forces.
He said that UK and US assertions that rebels do not have the capacity to execute a large scale gas attack were “not grounded in reality”.
