Syrian officials
Syria has given Russia new "material evidence"
that opposition fighters in the Syrian conflict have
used chemical weapons, a Russian minister has
said.
Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov also said a
report by UN inspectors on the alleged use of chemical
weapons was "politicised, biased and one-sided".
He said the inspectors had only looked at evidence of
an alleged attack on 21 August, not three previous
incidents.
The UN team found that the nerve agent Sarin was
used in the 21 August attack.
The report, however, did not apportion blame for the
attack but Western nations blame the government
forces of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.
Damascus - backed by Russia - says opposition forces
are to blame.
Meanwhile the chief UN weapons inspector, Ake
Sellstrom, has told the BBC it will be difficult to find
and destroy all of Syria's chemical weapons, but he
believes it is "doable".
Mr Sellstrom said much depended on whether the
Syrian government and the opposition were willing to
negotiate.
"Of course, it will be a stressful work," he added.
Mr Sellstrom also said his team's report may have
contributed to Syria saying it was prepared to give up
its chemical weapons.
UN divided
On Tuesday the five permanent UN Security Council
members - France, the UK, the US, Russia and China -
met in New York to discuss a resolution on Syria's
chemical weapons.
They were discussing a draft resolution put forward by
the UK, France and the US.
Such a document is seen as a key step in a US-Russia
brokered plan under which Syria will disclose its
arsenal within a week and eliminate it by mid-2014.
However, there have already been key disagreements
over the wording.
France, the UK and US want a resolution containing the
threat of military action but Russia opposes this.
Earlier, the disagreements were highlighted at a meeting
between Mr Lavrov and French Foreign Minister
Laurent Fabius in Moscow.
Referring to the UN's findings, Mr Fabius said: "When
you look at the amount of sarin gas used, the vectors,
the techniques behind such an attack, as well as other
aspects, it seems to leave no doubt that the regime [of
President Assad] is behind it."
But Mr Lavrov said: "We have serious grounds to
believe this was a provocation... But the truth needs to
be established and this will be a test of the future work
of the Security Council."
He said any UN resolution on the Syrian chemicals
issue should not contain the threat of military action.
A resolution under Chapter VII of the UN charter
permits military action if other measures do not
succeed. Chapter VI requires a purely negotiated
solution.
The BBC's Daniel Sandford in Moscow says Russia has
delivered a promise from Syria to give up its chemical
weapons, and it seems that at this stage Moscow does
not feel like giving the Western allies anything more.
Russia and China have three times blocked Western-
backed Security Council resolutions against Mr Assad.
More than 100,000 people have died since the uprising
against President Assad began in 2011.
Millions of Syrians have fled the country, mostly to
neighbouring nations. Millions more have been
internally displaced.
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