MOSCOW (Sputnik) — Russia and China used their veto powers at the Security Council vote Tuesday to block a draft resolution implying introduction of sanctions on Syrians, linked to the alleged chemical weapons use. The French Foreign Ministry said it "deeply regrets" the outcome of the vote.
"I saw this statement. I received it with great regret because it was aimed toward, I am convinced, misleading the French and international public," Lavrov said at a joint press conference with his counterpart from El Salvador, Hugo Martinez.
He argued that the goal behind the introduction of the draft resolution was to complicate the atmosphere of intra-Syrian talks.
"The goal was, it turns out, not only to split the Security Council, but also poison the atmosphere of intra-Syrian negotiations where some sprouts of the consent movement just started to arise," Lavrov stressed.
"Each such suspicion [on the use of chemical weapons in Syria] should be thoroughly and impartially analyzed," he added.
Despite lack of conclusive evidence, a number of countries, in particular the United Kingdom, France, and the United States, blamed the Syrian government for the chemical attacks. Syrian President Bashar Assad though denied all accusations, claiming the reports failed to provide conclusive evidence of its culpability and putting blame on the terrorist groups. The Russian authorities have repeatedly called on necessity to double-check such kind of reports, stressing that conclusions cannot be simply made on interviews of several local residents.
In February, Russia’s Foreign Ministry said it expected more effective work from the OPCW, adding that the organization's act-finding mission in Syria had conducted its activity over the past years remotely by interviewing witnesses, which raised questions over information's credibility.
Syria's civil war between government forces and a wide range of insurgents, including opposition groups and terrorists, such as al-Nusra Front and Daesh, both outlawed in Russia, has raged for some five years and has claimed hundreds of thousands of lives. Aleppo, fought over since 2012, was liberated and fully retaken by the government in late December.
