Rebels stop ‘OPCW team’ from reaching Douma
UN in security talks with Syria after chemical probe put on hold; ‘anti-terrorism’ meet held in Baghdad; Xi urges ‘objective’ probe into suspected chemical weapons attack; British-made smoke grenades found in Syria
MOSCOW: Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Bogdanov said on Thursday that Syrian rebels were preventing inspectors for the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) from reaching the town of Douma, the RIA news agency reported.
Meanwhile, the UN security experts have said they were negotiating with Syrian and Russian authorities for international chemical inspectors to deploy to the site of an alleged toxic gas attack near Damascus, after a reconnaissance mission came under ire.
The team from the world’s chemical arms watchdog has not yet been able to begin its ield work in Douma, where dozens were killed in a suspected April 7 gas attack, as Western powers warn that President Bashar Al Assad’s regime may attempt to remove crucial evidence.
The United Nations Department of Safety and Security (UNDSS) said it was trying to make arrangements for the fact-inding experts to travel to Douma “at the earliest possible time”, according to a report to the Security Council obtained by AFP.
“UNDSS in Damascus is now engaged in further discussions and coordination with representatives of the Syrian Arab Republic and the Russian military police on how to enhance and reinforce security arrangements in speciic locations in Douma,” it said.
A team from the OPCW arrived in Syria just hours after unprecedented Us-led strikes on regime targets on Saturday, launched in response to the alleged gas attack.
But the watchdog on Wednesday said safety fears had hampered plans for the experts to travel to Douma, a town that was controlled by rebels until Russian-backed regime forces fully retook it last week.
The United States, France and Britain have accused Assad’s regime of carrying out the suspected chemical attack, but Russia and Syria deny toxic gas was used in Douma.
According to the UN report, a security team travelled to two sites on Tuesday escorted by Russian military police.
At the second location, “there was an explosion followed by small-arms ire directed at (the) UNDSS team and the Russian military police,” said the report, adding that the team had returned safely to Damascus.
OPCW chief Ahmet Uzumcu said the incident highlighted “the highly volatile environment” in which the fact-inding team had to work.
He added he would only consider deploying the team to Douma with UNDSS approval and if the inspectors had “unhindered access to the sites.”
Syria’s UN ambassador Bashar Jaafari told the Security Council on Tuesday that the OPCW experts would begin their investigation once they received the all-clear from the UN team.
‘anti-terrorism’ meet
On Thursday, Iran, Iraq, Syria and Russia held a meeting in Baghdad of military and security oficials to coordinate “anti-terrorism” efforts, the Iranian defence ministry said.
“Cooperation in intelligence between the four countries for common aims and anti-terrorism missions has been successful in restoring stability and security, and it should form the basis for future cooperation,” Defence Minister General Amir Hatami said in a statement from the Iraqi capital.
The “coalition” had played an “important role in the defeat” of the Daesh group in both Iraq and Syria, he said.
The meeting came the same day as Iraq said its air force carried out a raid on Daesh positions in Syria.
Chinese President Xi Jinping told British Prime Minister Theresa in a telephone call on Thursday that there needs to be a comprehensive, just and objective probe into a suspected chemical weapons attack in Syria, state television reported.
Russia said Thursday that Syrian government forces found German “chlorine containers” and British “smoke grenades” in the country’s Eastern Ghouta, an ex-rebel enclave that was taken over by regime forces in April. “In the liberated territories of Eastern Ghouta, Syrian government troops found containers with chlorine — the worst kind of chemical weapon — from Germany, as well as smoke grenades made in — attention — Salisbury,” Russia’s foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said.
Salisbury is the British town where a former Russian double agent, Sergei Skripal, and his daughter were poisoned on March 4.