ANSD : U.S.: Russia, Syria may have tampered with Douma proof

WED 24 - 4 - 2024

Date: Apr 17, 2018
Source: The Daily Star

U.S.: Russia, Syria may have tampered with Douma proof

_Reuters
DAMASCUS / THE HAGUE, Netherlands: The U.S. accused Russia Monday of blocking international inspectors from reaching the site of a suspected poison gas attack in Syria and said Russians or Syrians may have tampered with evidence on the ground. Moscow denied the charge and blamed delays on retaliatory United States-led missile strikes on Syria over the weekend.

In the fraught aftermath of the suspected attack in Douma and the West’s response, Washington also prepared to increase pressure on Moscow, Syrian President Bashar Assad’s main ally, with new economic sanctions.

European Union foreign ministers threatened similar measures.

British Prime Minister Theresa May and French President Emmanuel Macron faced criticism from political opponents over their decisions to take part in the airstrikes.

Syria and Russia deny unleashing poison gas on April 7 during their offensive on Douma, which ended with the recapture of the town that had been the last rebel stronghold near the capital Damascus.

Relief organizations say dozens of men, women and children were killed. Footage of young victims foaming at the mouth and weeping in agony has thrust Syria’s civil war to the forefront of world concern again.

Inspectors from the Hague-based Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons traveled to Syria last week to inspect the site, but have yet to gain access to Douma, which is now under government control after the rebels withdrew.

“It is our understanding the Russians may have visited the attack site,” U.S. Ambassador Kenneth Ward said at an OPCW meeting Monday in The Hague. “It is our concern that they may have tampered with it with the intent of thwarting the efforts of the OPCW fact-finding mission to conduct an effective investigation,” he said. His comments at the closed-door meeting were obtained by Reuters.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov denied that Moscow had interfered with any evidence. “I can guarantee that Russia has not tampered with the site,” he told the BBC.

Two days after the missile strikes that he hailed as a well-executed military operation, President Donald Trump still wants to bring the small number of U.S. troops in northern Syria home, the White House said. But spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders said he had not set a timeline for a pullout. Trump was also willing to meet Russian President Vladimir Putin, she added, while indicating no such encounter was imminent.

Britain’s delegation to the OPCW accused Russia and the Assad government of stopping inspectors from reaching Douma. “Unfettered access is essential,” it said in a statement.

The team aims to collect samples, interview witnesses and document evidence to determine whether banned toxic munitions were used, although it is not permitted to assign blame for the attack.

British Ambassador Peter Wilson said in The Hague that the United Nations had cleared the inspectors to go but they had been unable to reach Douma because Syria and Russia had been unable to guarantee their safety.

Moscow blamed the delay on the airstrikes, in which the United States, France and Britain targeted what the Pentagon said were three chemical weapons facilities.

“We called for an objective investigation. This was at the very beginning after this information [of the attack] appeared. Therefore allegations of this toward Russia are groundless,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said.

A Russian Defense Ministry official later said the OPCW experts would travel to Douma Wednesday.

Russia’s Defense Ministry said the United States and its allies had hit military targets and not just research facilities, Interfax news agency reported.

The RIA news agency quoted the ministry as saying the Syrian military destroyed 71 out of 103 cruise missiles detected in Syrian airspace.

At a meeting in Luxembourg, the 28 EU foreign ministers endorsed the missile strikes and considered steps to deepen Assad’s isolation.

The Western leaders faced scrutiny at home over their actions, with Britain’s May facing questions over why she did not seek parliamentary approval for the action.

She told Parliament the decision to conduct airstrikes against Syria was in the British national interest and not as a result of pressure from Trump.

May has said she did not seek a green light from Parliament for the attacks due to the need to act quickly.

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