Syria warns against UN report misinterpretation

Syria's Ambassador to the United Nations Bashar al-Jaafari warned against prejudgments on the UN report about the August 21 chemical weapons attack in Syria. "The irony is that we now face false accusations ... based on interpretations and explanations which were not included in the report's text in the first place," said al-Jaafari on Wednesday, press tv reported. The Syrian envoy made the remarks after the United States, France, Britain and foreign-sponsored militants blamed the Syrian government for the attack near Damascus. The United Nations has released a report stating that sarin nerve agent was used in the Damascus suburbs attack. The report stopped short of indicating who launched the attack. The government of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has vehemently denied the accusations, saying the attack has been carried out by the militants themselves as a false-flag operation. On September 10, Syrian Foreign Minister Walid al-Muallem said Damascus is ready to implement a Russian proposal to place its chemical weapons arsenal under international control. The Russian government proposed the initiative during a meeting between Lavrov and Muallem in Moscow on September 9. In response, US President Barack Obama asked Congress to delay a vote on authorizing military action against Syria in order to give the Russian proposal a chance to play out.