The Russian Defense Ministry said early Wednesday the airstrike near Khan Shaykhun was carried out by Syrian aircraft, which struck a terrorist warehouse that stored chemical weapons slated for delivery to Iraq.
"We demand the solution which will allow holding those guilty, executors and accomplices in this crime accountable as well as the solution which will immediately restrict the [government] regime aircraft flights over all Syria," Bashar said at a press conference.
He added that the Syrian crisis demands triggering Chapter 7 of the United Nations’ Charter allowing the Security Council’s intervention in the conflict for its resolution. Bashar characterized Tuesday’s Idlib attack as a "crime of the century" and a "landmark in Syria’s history."
On Tuesday, a source in the Syrian army told Sputnik that the Syrian army did not have chemical weapons and the allegations of the attack in Idlib could be part of anti-Damascus propaganda.
The United Nations and the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) have started investigating the incident.
On January 20, Syria’s President Bashar Assad said that the country’s government had never used weapons of mass destruction, including the chemical weapons, against Syrian people. Assad recalled that in 2013 Damascus had agreed to destroy its chemical weapons warehouses and did not have such weapons stored.
