OPCW's Sarin Use Probe in Syria Flawed - Russian Foreign Ministry

© AFP 2023 / Omar haj kadourA Syrian man collects and bags the body of a dead bird, reportedly killed by a suspected toxic gas attack in Khan Sheikhun, in Syria’s northwestern Idlib province, on April 5, 2017
A Syrian man collects and bags the body of a dead bird, reportedly killed by a suspected toxic gas attack in Khan Sheikhun, in Syria’s northwestern Idlib province, on April 5, 2017 - Sputnik International
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The Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons Fact-Finding Mission (FFM) in Syria's late June investigation into the alleged use of sarin in Khan Sheikhoun was flawed, the Russian Foreign Ministry's nonproliferation department chief told Sputnik, calling on a more serious probe into the April incident.

MOSCOW (Sputnik) — On April 4, the National Coalition for Syrian Revolutionary and Opposition Forces supported by the United States blamed the Syrian government for an alleged chemical weapon attack in Khan Sheikhoun in Syria's Idlib province. Reacting to the incident, Washington, which had not presented any proof of the chemical weapons use by Damascus, launched 59 Tomahawk cruise missiles on the Syrian governmental military airfield in Ash Sha'irat on April 6.

© White HouseA map released by the US government to go with its intelligence report of the Syrian government’s use of chemical weapons in an attack last week
A map released by the US government to go with its intelligence report of the Syrian government’s use of chemical weapons in an attack last week - Sputnik International
A map released by the US government to go with its intelligence report of the Syrian government’s use of chemical weapons in an attack last week

Damascus has repeatedly denied any involvement in the incident and said that the Syrian government doesn't possess chemical weapons as the full destruction of Damascus' chemical weapons stockpile had been confirmed by the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) in January 2016.

"The OPCW FFM presented a not very high-quality report, on the results of almost three months of work, unequivocally confirming the use of sarin in Khan Sheikhoun," Mikhail Uliyanov said Thursday.

A United Nations (UN) arms expert collects samples, as he inspect the site where rockets had fallen in Damascus' eastern Ghouta suburb during an investigation into a suspected chemical weapons strike near the capital (File) - Sputnik International
CIA 'Makes Up' Chemical Weapons Evidence to Justify US Assad-Must-Go Policy

Uliyanov noted that a Syrian national investigation reached the same conclusion, and added that "the baton is now with the OPCW-UN Joint Investigative Mechanism [JIM], which has a mandate to identify perpetrators based on the results of its own research and the FFM report."

The United States is desperately preventing international expert visits to the Syrian airbase that it had attacked with cruise missiles in April, Ulyanov said.

He noted that "elementary logic suggests that Washington should have insisted on an urgent visit to Sha'irat by the UN and OPCW specialists in order to incriminate Damascus on an international level of violating the Convention on the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons".

"But no, the United States desperately prevents international personnel from visiting the air base despite the Syrian government's invitation and its willingness to guarantee the safety of the trip," he said.     

In an interview with Sputnik on April 21, Assad characterized the alleged chemical attack in Khan Sheikhoun as a provocation to justify the US strike on Ash Sha'irat. The Syrian leader also warned of the possibility of the new provocations similar to the one in Khan Sheikhoun.

"[Moscow] expects that this mechanism will be able to eliminate the serious flaws that the OPCW mission committed [and will conduct] a truly serious, highly professional and impartial investigation of all available leads, including that it was staged," he stressed.

The Russian official reiterated calls for the JIM experts to visit both Khan Sheikhoun and the Sha'irat airbase that the United States attacked three days after the April 4 chemical incident.

"In other words, carry out what the FFM has not done. We expect that this work will be performed quickly enough, because too much time is lost and it is becoming more difficult to establish the truth due to the slow and sluggish investigation by the FFM," Uliyanov said.

© SputnikUS Missile Attack on the Syria's Sha'irat Airbase
US Missile Attack on the Syria's Sha'irat Airbase - Sputnik International
US Missile Attack on the Syria's Sha'irat Airbase

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