US suggests Russia, Syria may tamper with Douma evidence
Western leaders face scrutiny at home over their actions
DAMASCUS/THEHAGUE/MOSCOW: The US accused Russia on Monday of blocking international inspectors from reaching the site of a suspected poison gas attack in Syria and said Russians or Syrians may have tampered with evidence on the ground.
Moscow denied the charge and blamed delays on retaliatory Us-led missile strikes on Syria at the weekend.
In the fraught aftermath of the suspected attack in Douma and the West’s response, Washington also prepared to increase pressure on Russia, Syrian President Bashar al-assad’s main ally, with new economic sanctions. European Union foreign ministers threatened similar measures.
Syria and Russia deny unleashing poison gas on April 7 during their offensive on Douma, which ended with the recapture of the town that had been the last rebel stronghold near Damascus.
Inspectors from the Haguebased Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) travelled to Syria last week to inspect the site, but have yet to gain access to Douma, which is now under government control after the rebels withdrew.
“It is our understanding the Russians may have visited the attack site,” US ambassador Kenneth Ward said at an OPCW meeting in The Hague on Monday.
Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov denied that Moscow had interfered with any evidence. “I can guarantee that Russia has not tampered with the site,” he told the BBC.
Russia’s defence ministry later said the US and its allies had hit military targets at the weekend and not just research facilities, Interfax news agency reported.
The Us-led strikes did nothing to alter the strategic balance or dent Assad’s supremacy and the Western allies have said the aim was to prevent the further use of chemical weapons, not to intervene in the civil war or topple Assad.
The Western leaders faced scrutiny at home over their actions, with Britain’s Theresa May facing questions over why she did not seek parliamentary approval for the action.
She told Parliament the decision to conduct air strikes against Syria was in the British national interest and not as a result of pressure from US President Donald Trump.
Asked whether she could order new strikes if chemical weapons were found to have been used in the future, she said: “Nobody should be in any doubt of our resolve to ensure that we cannot see a situation where the use of chemical weapons is normalised.”
Britain has said there are no plans for future strikes against Syria, but foreign secretary Boris Johnson warned Assad that all options would be considered if chemical weapons were used against Syrians again.
In France, the conservatives, the far-left and the far-right have all criticised the strikes.
Prime Minister Edouard Philippe was due to respond in Parliament on Monday. The French Constitution bars presidents from going to Parliament and Emmanuel Macron will therefore not be questioned directly by lawmakers.
On Sunday, Russian President Vladimir Putin warned that further attacks on Syria would bring chaos to world affairs.
In a telephone conversation with his Iranian counterpart, Hassan Rouhani, Putin and Rouhani agreed that the Western strikes had damaged the chances of achieving a political resolution in the conflict.
“Vladimir Putin, in particular, stressed that if such actions committed in violation of the UN Charter continue, then it will inevitably lead to chaos in international relations,” a Kremlin statement said.