MOSCOW: Syria on Wednesday handed over the additional evidence regarding the use of chemical weapons by foreign-backed militants in an attack in the suburbs of Damascus to Russia, a senior Russian Foreign Ministry official said.
“This evidence must be analyzed,” Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said after receiving the evidence from Syrian Foreign Minister Walid al-Muallem in Damascus on Wednesday.
On Monday, the 38-page report compiled by a UN expert team confirmed that chemical weapons were used in a deadly assault on August 21 on the rebel-held Damascus suburb of Ghouta, killing hundreds of people.
The report did not indicate who launched the attack but the United States, France, UK and the foreign-backed militants accused the President Bashar al-Assad’s regime of using chemical weapons against civilians.
Earlier on Tuesday, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said that the report had produced no evidence that Syrian troops carried out the attack and that Russia believed the foreign-backed militants were behind it.
Lavrov said that the report failed to answer a number of questions, Russia had asked such as whether the weapons were produced in a factory or they were homemade.
