Inspectors should be urgently sent to both Syria’s Idlib province and the Shayrat Airbase to conduct an unbiased investigation into the alleged use of chemical weapons, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has said.
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Russia will call on both the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) and the UN to investigate, Lavrov said after meeting with his Qatari counterpart in Moscow.
“We think that it is absolutely necessary to conduct a thorough, objective, professional, and unbiased investigation. We will insist that the OPCW and the UN in New York urgently send inspectors both to the site of incident and the airfield itself, where, according to Western experts, the munitions were loaded with chemicals.”
Lavrov argued that the remote investigation initially planned by the OPCW is unreasonable, stating that the organization should be more responsible in fulfilling its duties. He also questioned the apparent secrecy of the OPCW’s actions.
“It is very important to provide transparency in this process because, up until now, the OPCW experts have been operating somewhat surreptitiously for some reason,” the minister said.
“After the fact, they announced that, a few days ago, samples had somehow been collected at the site of the incident and delivered to a laboratory, which, as far as I understand, is not certified by the OPCW itself. It’s unclear why such clumsy actions are being taken.”
