Interfax: West lacks irrefutable evidence of Syrian govt’s role in August 21 chemical attack – top Russian diplomat

(Interfax – MOSCOW, September 24, 2013) Any arguments presented by the West that it was President Bashar al-Assad’s regime that carried out a chemical attack in the suburbs of Damascus on August 21 can be overturned, which is being done today, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said.

“Strong objections can be presented in response to all of the arguments that the [Syrian] government allegedly used chemical weapons in Ghuta. Generally speaking, it is being done every day now,” he said in the State Duma on Tuesday.

“To put it mildly, there are major questions over the system of arguments being put forth by the U.S. from the point of view of both logic and common sense, as well as from a technical standpoint. We will continue tackling this issue, including with the help of the additional data that we are currently receiving from the Syrian side,” Ryabkov said.

“As for the report compiled by the UN expert commission led by Ake Sellstrom, our position is that this report requires serious and scrupulous analysis, while the conclusions that were publicly announced as soon as the report was presented were too hasty,” the diplomat said.