MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 08th April, 2020) The Syrian government can not have been responsible for the chemical attack in the western Syrian province of Hama in 2017, as the claim was already disproven by US radar data, Russian Permanent Representative to International Organizations in Vienna Mikhail Ulyanov said on Wednesday.
Earlier in the day, the newly formed body within the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) in charge of identifying the perpetrators of chemical attacks said in its first report that the Syrian Arab Air Force's aircraft had dropped bombs containing sarin and chlorine in the Hama province three years ago.
"OPCW-UN investigators concluded that the Syrian SU-22 [fighter jet] dropped a bomb with sarin on Khan Sheikhoun. They did not know that the SU-22 can attack only in the direction of movement. In fact, the flight route recorded by US radars rules out any fault on the part of Damascus," Ulyanov tweeted.
He added that an investigation by Russian military specialists showed that a self-made explosive device caused the explosion, which entails that militants were behind the crime and not the Syrian government.
Ulyanov also regretted that Russia's position was simply ignored at the OPCW.
Damascus has repeatedly refuted the allegations of the chemical weapons use, saying that the full destruction of its arsenal was confirmed by the OPCW in 2016.
