NNA - Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov on Wednesday said that the documents and reports submitted by Moscow to the UN on the use of chemical weapons in Syria will answer many questions, and that the use of chemical weapons is a serious issue that shouldn't be used as an excuse for escalation, achieving geopolitical goals or political maneuvering.



In a press conference with Belarusian counterpart Vladimir Makei, Lavrov said that the results of Russia's investigations into the use of chemical weapons in Syria show that the Sarin gas shells used in Khan al-Asal area near Aleppo in March were manufactured in areas controlled by opposition groups.



Lavrov noted that US representatives weren't convinced about these results, and that Russia sent a package containing 800 pages of documents supplemented with photographs, coordinates and detailed reports of the procedures and results of the investigation.



He affirmed that the samples acquired by Russia were not tampered with before arriving at the labs.



Lavrov noted that the affirmations issued by the British and the French on having testimonies of the Syrian government using chemical weapons have evidential basis and no indication of time and place, nor was it confirmed that the samples they tested were acquired by those who conducted the test as said samples were handed over from one person to another, with some of the samples coming from journalists, all of which contradicts the principles of investigating such issues.



He said that Moscow doesn't oppose publishing the results of its investigations, rejecting any questioning of them and asserting that Russian experts gathered samples personally at the site of the attack and tested them in a lab licensed by the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), with the results concluding that the shells and Sarin gas which was in them contained materials showing they were homemade.



Lavrov said that other information acquired by Moscow indicates that the shells and the gas were manufactured in February in an area in Syria which was under the control of opposition groups at the time.



He asserted that Russia guarantees the precision of the investigation and that the experts didn't let the acquired samples out of their sight for a single moment until the samples reached the labs.



Lavrov said that Russia, contrary to its western partners, doesn't conceal its deductions, and that Russia sees no reason why the results of its investigations shouldn't be made public as they are convincing and should answer many questions.


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