Russia Ready to Grant Access to Syria Airbase for ‘Gas Attack’ Probe

Local Editor

Chief of the Russian General Staff's operations department Colonel General Sergey Rudskoy said his country is ready to provide inspectors with access to a Syrian airbase that the opponents of the Syrian government claim was used to carry out a "chemical attack."

At least 86 people died in the town of Khan Shaykhun in Syria last week in what was claimed to be a chemical attack conducted by the Syrian government.

Damascus denied the accusation, saying that a chemical weapons depot held by militants opposed to the government had been hit in a conventional Syrian airstrike.

But Western countries have been insisting that Damascus was behind the attack, with the United States naming a particular Syrian airbase as the launch pad for the alleged gas attack. The US military launched missiles against that base - the Shayrat airfield in Syria's Homs Province - on Friday, saying the strikes were carries out in retaliation for the April 5 "chemical attack."

Russia, which has been carrying out an aerial bombing campaign in Syria on behalf of Damascus, denied that any chemical weapons were used by the Syrian government.

For its part, Iran proposed that an impartial investigation be launched into the accusations.

On Tuesday, Colonel General Sergey Rudskoy, the chief of the Russian General Staff's Operations Department, said Russia would grant access to international inspectors to the airfield.

"Experts are aware that it is impossible to conceal the traces of chemical weapons," Colonel General Rudskoy said.

He said the Syrian government, too, was ready to grant access to experts from the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons [OPCW] to the army base.

Rudskoy also said the Syrian government was not in possession of any chemical weapons. He said anti-Damascus militants were suffering one defeat after another and were on the run in the territories they had occupied.

Source: News Agencies, Edited by website team