Russia calls Syrian ‘chemical attack’ staged

TIL Desk/World/Russia/ Russia has “indisputable” data that the alleged chemical attack in the Syrian town of Douma was staged by “foreign agents”, Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said on Friday.

“The mission of the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) has set off to Syria not so quickly and without abundant enthusiasm but under our and Syrian pressure. It is due to arrive in Damascus on April 14,”

“We expect the mission to go without any delay to Douma where Russian specialists who examined this place have not found any confirmations of the use of chemical weapons,” he said.

“We have the irrefutable data that this was staged… and the special services of a country, which is now seeking to be in the first ranks of the Russophobic campaign, were involved in this staged event,” he said.

The US and France said they had proof it took place and, alongside the UK, were considering military retaliation. Russia, which has military forces deployed in Syria in support of the government, warned that US air strikes risked starting a war.

Russia accused Washington of putting international peace at risk and requested a UN meeting in New York later in the day but it was not confirmed that it will happen. The White House said it was continuing to assess intelligence and talk to its allies about how to respond.