© Mikhail Voskresenskiy / SputnikAftermath of the US missile attack on a Syrian military airbase April 7, 2017.
Russia has demanded the immediate dispatch of an independent fact-finding mission to the site of last month's chemical incident in Idlib and the airbase from where the attack was allegedly launched,
noting that constant delays discredit the OPCW and render its mandate irrelevant.Over 80 people were killed and 200 others injured on April 4, in an alleged sarin gas incident at Khan Shaykhun in Syria's Idlib province. Backed by their allies, Washington rushed to blame Damascus based on open-source intelligence and three days later, carried out a massive cruise missile strike on Syria's Shayrat Airbase in the Homs Governorate.
Damascus strongly denied responsibility, saying it did not possess or use chemical weapons, and that the Syrian Air Force destroyed a facility where the militants apparently stored nerve gas.
Moscow and Damascus have condemned Washington's unilateral actions, insisting on a proper investigation into the Idlib attack. And while Russia has repeatedly insisted on launching an independent international probe into the tragic episode, Paris promptly prepared its own report which echoed the US assertion that Damascus was responsible for the attack.
The Syrian government, who is a signatory to the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW),
destroyed its 1,300-ton chemical weapons arsenal - except for the stockpiles located in the rebel and terrorist-controlled areas - under UN supervision following a deal brokered by Moscow and Washington in 2013.
Comment: More on the GAO report: GAO report: Pentagon lacks 'visibility and accountability' over arms transfers to Iraq, Kuwait