OPCW-UN report on chemical attack in Syria uses 'flawed methodology and biased evidence' says Russian Deputy FM

Sputnik & RT
Fri, 27 Oct 2017 17:22 UTC

© Omar haj kadour / AFP

Destruction at a hospital room in Khan Sheikhun, in the northwestern Syrian Idlib province, following a suspected toxic gas attack April 4, 2017.

The recently issued report put the blame for a chemical weapons incident in Syria's Khan Sheikhun on President Bashar Assad. Russia's deputy foreign minister has stated that Moscow may propose measures to improve methods of probing chemical attacks after examining the results of the findings.

Moscow, after its first reading of the OPCW-UN Syria report, believes that there are flaws in the methodology and that biased evidence was used, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov told RIA Novosti.

According to Ryabkov, conclusions were derived from "all the same evidence and testimony, which cause us great doubts due to the bias of sources and due to non-compliance with the requirements of the Convention on the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, according to the sequence of collection and storage of material evidence."

"All these logical inconsistencies, internal contradictions are visible even after the first cursory reading," the deputy head of the Russian Foreign Ministry added.

The OPCW-UN Joint Investigative Mechanism on the use of chemical weapons in Syria on Thursday presented a report to the UN Security Council on the incidents involving the nerve gas sarin in Khan Sheikhun on April 4, 2017 and mustard gas in Umm Hosh on September 15-16, 2016.

The US fired several dozen cruise missiles at the Syrian airbase in response to an alleged government chemical attack in the province of Idlib.

UN-OPCW investigators 'confident' Damascus is to blame for April sarin attack

Russia's Permanent Mission to the UN voiced concern that cherry-picked details of the findings, which are yet to be made public, were already circulating in the media.

"We are surprised by the fact that direct quotations from this internal UNSC document are being reproduced by some Western news agencies," the Russian mission said, confirming that JIM circulated the document in the UN Security Council.

"We have started a thorough study of this paper, which is of very complex technical nature," the statement said. "Such work should be conducted with the involvement of relevant specialists from various departments."

Russia and Syria have long questioned the previous report's findings, noting, that the investigating team never actually visited the site of the alleged attack, but relied on the evidence and samples collected by militant groups controlling the area. The 'experts' also failed to inspect the Shayrat Airbase, which was struck by a barrage of US cruise missiles just days after the chemical incident.

Upon reviewing the collected evidence and data, Moscow said it tends to believes that the incident could have been staged; and that the deadly chemical agent was detonated on the ground and not on impact from a Syrian airstrike.

Noting the rather small crater left after the alleged Syrian bombing, Russia further questioned the symptoms displayed by victims in the footage from the scene. Noticing dilated pupils amongst the alleged victims, Russian authorities pointed out that if sarin agent was used, their eyes instead would substantially contract.

The Khan Shaykhun chemical attack happened on April 4, 2017, an area of the Idlib Governorate that was under the control of Tahrir al-Sham, better known as the Al-Nusra Front terrorist group.

The sarin gas release, which reportedly claimed the lives of between 74-100 civilians, happened after the town was struck by the Syrian Air Force. Damascus said it targeted the terrorists using only conventional weapons.

On Wednesday Russia blocked a UN Security Council (UNSC) draft resolution on the extension of the OPCW-UN mission's mandate, emphasizing that a continuation of the decree should be decided only after assessing JIM's report, as well as the investigative team's performance, independence, objectivity and professionalism.

Just hours before the report's findings sent the media accusing Damascus into overdrive, the US Secretary of State said President Bashar Assad has no role to play in the future of Syria and that the only question remaining is "how" he should be removed from power.

"The reign of the Assad family is coming to an end. The only issue is how that should that be brought about," Tillerson told reporters following talks with UN Special Envoy for Syria Staffan de Mistura in Geneva, Switzerland. "It is our view and I have said this many times as well that we do not believe that there is a future for the Assad regime and Assad family."

Comment: It's no accident that this report comes out as Russia and Syria are wiping ISIS off the map. The US is coming face-to-face with its failed strategy to destroy Syria and are grasping at straws to maintain their position.

See also:

• Zakharova: "A child is pretty much murdered under the camera lights" - Swedish doctors denounce White Helmets snuff films
• Seymour Hersh: There Was No Chemical Weapon Attack On Khan Sheikhoun
• Fake News: Eviscerating the New York Times' 'Sarin Gas' Propaganda

Update (Oct. 28): The investigators admit in their report that the "integrity of the scene was devalued" after the alleged crater was "subsequently filled with concrete" by the terrorists occupying the area. As the Russians point out, the accounts on which it is based are culled from anonymous research centers, open-source information and so-called 'independent experts,' which lack any convincing proof to support their findings.

In separate commentary, the ministry questioned why repeated requests by the Syrian government for the UN team to share not only the lab results, but also the actual samples stored in the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) laboratory, were only partially fulfilled following months of negotiations.

While it was provided with lab results, the biochemical samples which had allegedly been collected at the site were never sent to Damascus.

"Apart from that, the OPCW Technical Secretariat constantly dodges answering the question, whether it received the samples allegedly taken at the scene of the Khan Shaykhun incident by the British and French. According to Convention [on the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons], these samples should be presented to the country, where they were collected," the statement reads further.

Such discrepancies in the process not only violates Syria's rights as a member of OPCW, but raise serious questions about the impartiality of the UN and the OPCW investigation team, Russia's Foreign Ministry said.

"There's only one conclusion - as the US and their 'like-minders' continue to escalate the situation with the Syrian 'chemical dossier,' more and more glaring examples of the 'double standards' in their approach towards Syria at the UNSC and OPCW platforms," the statement adds.

Damascus has also rejected the report's findings, charging that it apparently "came in implementation of the instructions of the US administration and Western countries to exert more political pressures and threats to Syria's sovereignty," Sana reported citing a source at Foreign and Expatriates Ministry.

"Syria strongly condemns the direct and indirect accusations against it which were included in this report and the previous one since they represent a falsification of the truth and distortion of all accurate information about what happened in Khan Shaykhun."

Moscow said it would provide a "more detailed analysis" next week, after carefully studying the report. The ministry promised to issue a response on the possible extension of JIM's current mandate which is due to expire on November 16.
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Western nations have meanwhile welcomed the conclusions of the report. The findings were promptly praised by US officials as adamant and "impartial" proof of the alleged crimes attributed to Syria's President Bashar Assad.

"Time and again, we see independent confirmation of chemical weapons use by the Assad regime," Nikki Haley, the US envoy to the UN said in a statement.

Britain, on Friday, urged the UNSC to impose sanctions on Syria: "A robust international response is now essential to hold those responsible for the Khan Shaykhun attack to account... It now falls on the Security Council to act on these findings and to deliver justice," British Ambassador Matthew Rycroft told reporters.

China's reaction, however, appeared to be more guarded: "We hope the conclusion of any investigation should be grounded on solid and reliable evidence, conforms to the principle of professionalism, objectiveness, and justice and will stand the test of history," Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Geng Shuang's told reporters Friday.

US State Department spokesperson Heather Nauert:

This new report confirms unequivocally what the United States and many in the international community have stated publicly for many months - that the Assad regime carried out the heinous April 4 attack killing approximately 100 innocent Syrian civilians, including many children, and injuring hundreds more. The [UN] Security Council must send a clear message that the use of chemical weapons by anyone will not be tolerated, and must fully support the work of the impartial investigators.

Confirmation bias at its best.