Russia’s foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, has said Moscow will table a UN resolution calling for an independent inquiry into the chemical weapons attack in the Syrian town of Douma.
The announcement came as the White House said Donald Trump will skip an upcoming summit in South America to “oversee the American response to Syria and to monitor developments around the world”.
The US president is consulting his British and French allies on a potential military strike on Syria after the use of chemical weapons in the Douma, the last rebel-held area of eastern Ghouta. Syrian opposition rescue workers and medics said more than 40 people died and hundreds injured in the poison gas attack.
Speaking in Moscow, Lavrov appeared to pre-empt a possible western strike on Syria, announcing that Russia would propose a “transparent and honest” investigation at the security council on Tuesday, with the involvement of the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons. Moscow has previously insisted there was no evidence for a chemical attack.
“If, under the pretext of a lack of security guarantees, those who employ anti-Russian arguments to pursue their Russophobic aims do not allow experts to come, then it will be a verdict on their true plans and show that they have no interest in establishing the truth,” Lavrov said.
The Syrian regime, which has denied any involvement in the attack, said on Tuesday that it has invited the chemical weapons watchdog to send a fact-finding mission into the country.
For more read the full of article at The Guardian
