UN chemical probe team wraps up Syria mission

UN chemical experts wrapped up their investigation of seven alleged chemical attacks in Syria as disarmament teams prepared to visit the country to act on Syria’s stockpile of chemical weapons. The UN's six-person team of chemical weapons experts, which is on its second mission to Syria to investigate alleged attacks, is scheduled to leave the country on Monday, Al-Alam reported. The team has said it hopes to present a final report on recent alleged attacks by late October, following an interim report submitted this month which confirmed the use of the nerve agent sarin in an August 21 attack in the suburbs of Damascus. On Tuesday, a team of around 20 inspectors from the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons is due in Damascus to begin inspecting Syria's arsenal ahead of its destruction. "At this point, we have absolutely no reason to doubt the information provided by the Syrian regime," an OPCW official told journalists in The Hague on Sunday. Concerns were highly on the rise in the region following US threats to bomb the country over conflicting reports of a chemical attack which Washington rushed to blame on the Syrian government. US military plans were canceled with Russia’s mediation that sought to ease the tensions by putting Syria’s stockpile of chemical weapons under international control. The offer was widely welcomed both in Syria and other countries that were concerned by US military ambitions and its regional consequences. Syria and Russia have provided the United Nations with evidence showing that the August 21 chemical attack was a false-flag operation led by anti-Syria militants to open the way for direct US military involvement.