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Chemical Incident: Russia to Ensure Security of Experts at Syria's Sha'irat Base

© Sputnik / Mikhail Voskresenskiy / Go to the mediabankAftermath of the US missile attack on a Syrian military airbase
Aftermath of the US missile attack on a Syrian military airbase - Sputnik International
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The Russian military will provide security for experts during their investigation into the chemical incident in Syria's Idlib province.

MOSCOW (Sputnik) — The Russian military is ready to ensure security and allow independent experts and representatives of the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) to visit the Sha'irat airbase in Syria to conduct an examination, the Russian General Staff said Tuesday.

"We are ready to provide any opportunities, ensure security and allow independent experts and representatives of the OPCW to visit the Sha'irat airfield for an expert examination. Experts know that it is impossible to conceal traces of chemical weapons," chief of the Russian General Staff's Main Operational Directorate Col. Gen. Sergei Rudskoi said at a news briefing.

On April 4, a chemical weapons incident in Syria's Idlib province claimed the lives of some 80 people and inflicted harm on an additional 200 civilians. The Syrian National Coalition of Revolutionary and Opposition Forces, as well as a number of Western states, accused the Syrian government troops of carrying out the attack, while Damascus refuted these allegations, with a Syrian army source telling Sputnik that the army did not possess chemical weapons.

Volunteers take part in a simulation of how to respond to a chemical attack, in the northern Syrian city of Aleppo (File) - Sputnik International
Russian General Staff Warns Against New US Missile Strikes on Syria
The Russian Defense Ministry said on April 5 that the airstrike near Khan Shaykhun by the Syrian air force hit a terrorist warehouse that stored chemical weapons slated for delivery to Iraq, and called on the UN Security Council to launch a proper investigation into the incident.

Russian President Vladimir Putin said April 6 that groundless accusations in the chemical weapons incident in Syria's Idlib were unacceptable before the investigation into the matter had been carried out.

However, the incident was used as pretext for a US missile strike against the Ash Sha'irat airbase carried out late on April 6. US President Donald Trump characterized the strike as a response to the alleged use of chemical weapons by the Syrian government troops while Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said it was a violation of the international law. Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei described the US missile strike against the Syrian airfield as a strategic mistake.

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. Besides, under a Russian-US deal after the east Ghouta sarin gas incident in 2013, Damascus 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. In January 2016, the OPCW announced that all chemical weapons in Syria had been destroyed.

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