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Russia Questions Validity Of Syrian Gas Attack Investigation At UN

RFE/RL October 14, 2017

Russia on October 13 complained that UN investigators failed to search for traces of the banned nerve gas sarin on their visit this week to a Syrian airfield that Western nations say was used to launch a sarin gas attack against civilians in April.

The UN team, working jointly with the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, agreed under pressure from Russia to visit the Shayrat airfield before releasing its report on the attack on the Syrian town of Khan Sheikhun on April 4.

Russian foreign ministry official Mikhail Ulyanov told a briefing at the United Nations that four investigators visited the airfield, spoke to military personnel, and checked flight plans, "but they did not take samples."

"A reliable investigation is simply impossible without sampling," Ulyanov said, calling it "a scandalous situation."

A spokesman for the UN investigative team declined to comment.

Russia, Syria's ally, helped set up the UN investigation with the goal of determining who was behind the attack, which killed at least 87 people, including more than 30 children, and provoked a global outcry.

But Ulyanov said that because of "serious problems" with the inquiry, Moscow is now weighing whether to block renewal of the investigative team's authority.

"I ask myself what is the reason for the extension of the mandate of this mechanism if it is not capable and is not willing to fulfill its mandate," he said.

"In order to judge if it deserves an extension of the mandate, we need to see the report to be issued on the 26th of October and assess it," Ulyanov said.

Russia's stance puts it at odds with the United States, whose ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley said last week that renewing the mandate of the Syrian investigation should be the UN Security Council's top priority.

Russia and Syria have blamed the gas attack in Khan Sheikhun on Syrian rebels and insist it was not carried out by the Syrian government's air force, as Western intelligence sources have maintained.

The United States, France, and Britain have blamed Syrian President Bashar al-Assad for the attack. U.S. President Donald Trump ordered missile strikes on Shayrat days after the attack, saying at the time that the Syrian aircraft that released the gas had departed from that airfield. Syria's government has denied the accusation.

Syria agreed to destroy its chemical weapons in 2013 under a deal brokered by Russia and the United States.

Despite being found responsible for previous chlorine gas attacks in Syria by the UN investigative team, the Syrian government has repeatedly denied using chemical weapons during the country's six-year civil war.

With reporting by AFP, Reuters, and TASS

Source: https://www.rferl.org/a/russia-complains-un- investigators-failed-search-banned-gas- syrian-airfield/28794078.html

Copyright (c) 2017. RFE/RL, Inc. Reprinted with the permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, 1201 Connecticut Ave., N.W. Washington DC 20036.