May 25, 2013 (TSR) – The Russian National Security Council Secretary Nikolai Patrushev said in an interview there is no evidence that the Syrian army used chemical weapons against the armed groups.
“Recently, the United States and some countries have expressed their concern over the possibility that chemical weapons were used in Syria, and we have no evidence that those weapons were used by the government forces,” Patrushov said to Interfax news agency.
He added that “The Syrian government each time denied the doubts of Western partners on using chemical weapons during the military operations and has announced that it will not use them, while we didn’t hear such assurances from the gunmen.”
Assistant spokesman of the UN Secretary General, Farhan Haq, announced Friday that Russian journalists have presented to the UN evidence in the form of video tapes proving that gunmen in Syria did use chemical weapons.
Among the materials were those sent by Anastasia Popova, correspondent of the Russian State Television and Radio Broadcasting Company, indicating that chemical weapons were used by the armed terrorist groups in Khan al-Assal area in the countryside of Aleppo last March.
The materials included video tapes taken from the site and testimonies of eyewitnesses, doctors who treated the patients and experts from Aleppo University.
The Syrian government had demanded an independent, honest and transparent UN investigation into the incident of using chemical weapons by the terrorist groups in Khan al-Assal.
The UN however tried to exploit the incident to use it for other purposes through conducting a search like what happened in Iraq in the aftermath of the U.S.-British invasion.
