Syria: Site of alleged attack getting security clearance
DAMASCUS, Syria — Syrian media said international chemical weapons inspectors on Tuesday entered Douma, where an alleged poison gas attack was carried out earlier this month, but a Syrian diplomat said later that only a U.N. security team visited the Damascus suburb.
The reported poison gas attack led to Western airstrikes against the Syrian government over the weekend.
Syria’s U.N. ambassador, Bashar Ja’afari, told the Security Council that the U.N. team went to Douma to decide whether investigators from the international chemical weapons watchdog could safely visit the site. If the team decides “the situation is sound,” the fact-finding mission from the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons will start work there Wednesday, Ja’afari said.
The team’s entry into Douma came 10 days after the alleged attack, raising concerns that any evidence the inspectors find could be useless.
On Monday, OPCW Director-General Ahmet Uzumcu said Syrian and Russian authorities had blocked its inspectors from going to Douma and instead offered them 22 people to interview as witnesses. The team arrived in the Syrian capital of Damascus on Saturday.
Journalists in Damascus were prevented by government minders from contacting the OPCW inspectors, and The Hague-based organization refused to comment on “operational details regarding the Douma deployment.”
U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said it was the “obligation of the Syrian government to provide all the conditions for (OPCW inspectors) to work without any restrictions.”
British Prime Minister Theresa May accused the Syrian government and its ally Russia of trying to cover up evidence and obstruct the investigation.
The OPCW is investigating reports that government forces gassed sites in Douma on April 7, when the town was still held by rebels and home to tens of thousands of people — residents and others who were displaced by fighting elsewhere.
Syrian activists said more than 40 people were killed in the alleged attack.
Less than two days later, the Army of Islam rebels surrendered the town, which was the last stronghold in the once rebellious eastern Ghouta region.
The U.S. and France say they have evidence that Syrian President Bashar Assad’s military was behind the poison gas attack, but they have made none of that evidence public. On Saturday, the U.S., France and Britain attacked sites they said were linked to Syria’s chemical weapons program.
Originally, Nikki Haley, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, had said the Trump administration would announce additional sanctions on Russia.
But Larry Kudlow, President Donald Trump’s chief economic adviser, said Tuesday that Haley “got ahead of the curve” and may have been suffering from “momentary confusion” on new sanctions but added that additional ones are under consideration.
Haley fired back at Larry Kudlow, saying, “With all due respect, I don't get confused.”
Kudlow apologized Tuesday for his comments.