Lavrov calls to probe into use of chemical weapons in Syria on basis of facts

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has called on the United Nations Security Council to investigate all incidents linked with the use of chemical weapons on the basis of facts but not allegations or conjectures. Speaking at the 68th session of the United Nations General Assembly on Friday, the Russian foreign minister once again stressed that the use of chemical weapons was inadmissible. But it did not mean that anyone had the right to accroach the right to accuse or condemn, he said. Lavrov stressed that all incidents linked with the use of chemical weapons by anyone in Syria must be investigated by unbiased professionals and then considered at the United Nations Security Council on the basis of facts only. He reminded that Damascus had already agreed to join the Chemical Weapons Convention and expressed the hope that the executive committee of the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) and the United Nations Security Council would help create necessary framework for the disposal of Syria’s chemical arsenals. Progress in the settlement of the problem of Syria’s chemical disarmament would give an impetus to the implementation of the agreements on an international conference on a zone free from weapons of mass destruction in the Middle East, he added.