Syria Air Strikes: Russia Denies Tampering with Suspected Chemical Attack Site

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has on Monday denied that his country was interfering with evidence of a suspected chemical weapons attack in Syria after Britain said international inspectors were not granted access into the site in Douma.

In an interview for BBC’s Hardtalk, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said: “I can guarantee that Russia has not tampered with the site.”

Lavrov also said that the evidence of a chemical attack carried out by Syrian forces cited by Britain, France and the United States had been based“on media reports and social media”.

He denied that any chemical attack had taken place, telling the BBC: “What did take place was the staged thing”.

Russia has accused Britain of being involved in staging the attack.

Concern about tampering was raised by the US envoy to the international chemical weapons watchdog.

International inspectors are trying to reach the site in Douma, near Damascus.

The nine-strong team from the watchdog, the OPCW (Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons), was told by Syrian and Russian officials in Damascus there were still“security issues to be worked out”, OPCW chief Ahmet Uzumcu said.

Douma was a rebel stronghold at the time of the attack on 7 April and is now under the control of the Syrian government and Russian military.

Mr Uzumcu was speaking as the start of OPCW emergency talks in The Hague.

The OPCW was holding a closed-door meeting at its headquarters in The Hague on Monday to discuss the alleged chemical attack, following air strikes on Syria by London, Paris and Washington on Saturday.

Britain’s embassy to the Netherlands earlier on Monday said Russia and Syria have not yet allowed a fact-finding mission from the world’s chemical weapons watchdog to enter Douma.

British ambassador Peter Wilson also urged the meeting “to act to hold perpetrators to account”, saying failure to do so “will only risk further barbaric use of chemical weapons, in Syria and beyond”.

In her defence of her country’s involvement in the air strikes, UK Prime Minister Theresa May said it was to prevent “further human suffering”, as opposition parties said MPs should have been consulted in advance.