Inspectors denied access to attack site
BEIRUT >> Chemical weapons inspectors in Syria said Monday that they are being denied access to the site of an alleged chemical attack that was used to justify U.S.-led airstrikes over the weekend, amid growing suspicions that evidence of the incident may have been tampered with.
Pro-government media broadcast interviews with doctors from the area saying that no such attack had occurred and that the victims they treated were suffering from asthma.
A team with the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons arrived in Damascus on Saturday at the invitation of the government to investigate the alleged chemical attack, which prompted the strikes against three Syrian chemical weapons facilities early Saturday.
Two days later, the factfinding team said it has still not been granted permission by Syrian authorities to visit Douma, the town in the Eastern Ghouta suburbs of Damascus where residents and monitoring groups said the attack took place.
The U.S. ambassador to the OPCW, Kenneth Ward, said he suspects Russians may have tampered with the evidence. Russia, a longtime ally of the Syrian government, intervened militarily in 2015 to help turn the tide of the civil war.
“It is our understanding the Russians may have visited the attack site. We are concerned they may have tampered with it with the intent of thwarting the efforts of the OPCW Fact-Finding Mission to conduct an effective investigation,” Ward said in comments at a closed-door meeting of the OPCW in The Hague that were later made public.
“Unfettered access essential. Russia & Syria must cooperate,” tweeted the account of the British team with the OPCW, expressing concern that access to Douma was being denied.
According to OPCW Director General Ahmet Uzumcu, Syrian and Russian officials have cited “security issues” for the refusal to allow the team to visit the town. Instead, he said, the team members have been told they can interview 22 witnesses who will be brought to Damascus by the authorities.