Iran Calls for Setting Commission to Investigate Alleged Syria Chemical Attack

Iran called for creating a special commission to investigate the alleged use of chemical weapon in Syria following the US missile attack on the country's airfield in response to the incident, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said on Saturday.

MOSCOW (Sputnik) — Rouhani condemned the recent Washington's launch of multiple cruise missiles at the Syrian military airfield near the city of Homs, noting that "one of the statements of the person who is currently leading the United States, was fight against terrorism, however, all the terrorists in Syria are celebrating the US attack now."

"The Islamic Republic of Iran calls for creating an international commission comprising neutral states without any biased parties which will carry out inspections and investigate the actual circumstances of the performer and the location from where the alleged chemical weapon was delivered, because the Syrian government does not have chemical weapon, according to the UN statement," Rouhani said, as quoted by the ISNA news agency.

On April 4, the National Coalition for Syrian Revolutionary and Opposition Forces said some 80 people were killed and 200 injured earlier that day in a chemical weapons attack in Khan Shaykhun, Idlib province, blaming the Syrian army for the incident. The Syrian foreign minister denied the government’s involvement in the Idlib incident, saying it had never nor would it ever use chemical weapons on either civilians or terrorists operating in the country.

The Russian Defense Ministry said on Wednesday that the airstrike near Khan Shaykhun by the Syrian air force hit a terrorist warehouse that stored chemical weapons slated for delivery to Iraq.

However, on Thursday night, the United States carried out a cruise missile attack on the Syrian military airfield in Ash Sha’irat, located in the vicinity of the Homs city. US PResident Donald Trump said the attack was a response to the reported chemical weapon use in Syria's Idlib.

The US missile attack claimed the lives of 10 people, an officer of the Syrian Armed Forces told Sputnik. The Russian Defense Ministry said that the attack left two Syrian servicemen missing, four killed, and six suffering severe injuries from the fire. Homs Governor Talal Barazi said earlier on Friday that at least two civilians from a nearby village and five Syrian servicemen were killed.

Earlier this year, Syrian President Bashar Assad said that the country’s government had never used weapons of mass destruction, including chemical weapons, against the Syrian people. Syria joined the Convention on the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons and agreed to destroy its stockpile under Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) oversight under a Russian-US deal after the east Ghouta sarin gas incident in 2013. In January 2016, the OPCW announced that all chemical weapons in Syria had been destroyed.