UN Syria report ‘biased, politicized’
Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov has expressed disappointment about the œpoliticized” and œbiased” findings of UN inspectors on the use of chemical weapons in Syria.
“We were disappointed, to say the least, with the approach adopted by the UN and the UN inspectors, who were in Syria, which was very selective and incomplete, without regard to the circumstances, and was compiled without the collection of materials in the other three sites,” Ryabkov said on Tuesday following a meeting in Damascus with Syrian Foreign Minister Walid al-Muallem.
He further emphasized that without a complete picture of what has taken place in a Damascus suburb in Syria, the conclusions drawn in the report remain one-sided.
Ryabkov also stated that Syria has handed over new evidence to Russia showing that the chemical weapons were used by foreign-backed opposition militants, adding, œThat is really true. Just now we were given evidence. We need to analyze it.”
The Russian official further emphasized that Moscow would not accept any UN Security Council (UNSC) resolution œbased on Chapter Seven [of the UN Charter] concerning the Russian initiative.”
The 38-page UN report on the chemical attack in Syria on August 21 confirmed that chemical arms were indeed used at the site.
The UN inspectors, however, were not authorized to name a suspected culprit in the attack, and the evidence they presented has been subject to contradictory interpretations.
The report stated that the warheads used in the Syria chemical attack œcould be original or improvised.”
The conclusion came after inspectors collected over 30 samples from both victims and nearby soil in a Damascus suburb last month.
The UN inspectors further noted that they had limited time to carry out the investigation and cautioned that evidence might have been œmoved” or even œmanipulated” since other unknown individuals visited the sites before and during their probe.
The remarks by the senior Russian official further highlight the widening division among the five permanent members of the UNSC on the wording of a draft resolution on Syria chemical weapons.
The document, drafted by the US, France and Britain, which have been pushing for military action against Damascus even before the UN inspection report was released, could authorize the use of force against Syria under Chapter Seven of the UN Charter.
Security Council members are planning to come up with a resolution aimed to enforce an American-Russian deal reached in Geneva last Saturday, calling for Syria to destroy its chemical weapons by mid 2014.
MFB/KA/SS
Copyright: Press TV
Source: http://rinf.com/alt-news/breaking-news/un-syria-report-biased-politicized-2/70716/
