Ake Sellstrom, the head
of the inspection team that visited after an August 21 attack, told CNN
that the next visit could take place as early as next week.
The news might please
Russia, which slammed a recent U.N. chemical weapons report as one-sided
and called for inspectors to return to Syria.
Russia denounces U.N. report
Soon after Western
countries said the U.N. findings implicated the Syrian regime in using
sarin gas, Russia fired back, calling the report "distorted."
Deputy Foreign Minister
Sergey Ryabkov also told Russia Today that the report was built on
insufficient information. He said Russia has its own evidence from the
site of the August 21 attack that, according to U.S. estimates, killed
more than 1,400 people.
"This analysis is not
finished, so the point here is not about accusing parties," Ryabkov told
Russia Today. "But the point is ... that those inspectors of the U.N.
should come back to Syria to complete their investigation."
In the same interview, he
said Syria has given Russia evidence that implicates rebels in the
August 21 attack, which occurred outside Damascus.
"This confirmation and
this evidence has been transmitted to the Russian side ... and we are in
the process of studying those," he said without citing what the
evidence was.
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| UN chemical weapons inspectors |
Russia has been a strong ally of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's regime, and Russian defense contracts with Syria have probably exceeded $4 billion.
Al-Assad met Wednesday
with a U.S. delegation in Damascus, telling its members that the "U.S.
administration policies in the region do not serve the American people,"
the state-run Syrian Arab News Agency reported.
Al-Assad also met with Ryabkov, Syrian state television reported.
He "expressed his and
the Syrian people's gratitude for the Russian positions supporting Syria
in confronting the aggressive attack and the terrorism that is aided by
Western, Arab and regional states," Syria state TV reported.
Moscow's reaction to the U.N. report has differed sharply from those of the United States and France.
"Based on our
preliminary review of information contained in the report, several
crucial details confirm the Assad regime's guilt in carrying out this
attack," U.S. State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki told reporters
Tuesday.
She said one of the
munitions identified in the report, a 120 mm improvised rocket, has been
linked to previous attacks by al-Assad's regime, and "we have no
indications that the opposition has manufactured or used this style
rocket."
French Foreign Minister
Laurent Fabius said his country also believes the report proves the
Syrian regime used chemical warfare in opposition strongholds near
Damascus.
But Nick Brown, the
editor-in-chief of IHS Jane's Defence Equipment and Technology Centre,
said that though the U.N. report appears to prove that high-quality,
weaponized sarin was used in significant quantities in Syria, "I have
not personally seen any compelling data that proves beyond doubt who the
weapons were used by."
He added: "There is a
degree of circumstantial evidence that appears to point to the attack
originating with the Assad forces, but the exact forensic detail of who
prepared and then triggered the weapons remains unclear and was beyond
the scope of the U.N. investigation."
Syrian government claims a win
United Nations Security
Council members were expected to meet again Wednesday to try to hammer
out a resolution to get Syria to give up its chemical weapons.
Reaching a deal will be
tough. U.S. and French officials want to include the threat of military
action in the event Syria doesn't comply, but Russian officials don't
want any wording that could countenance the use of force.
The disagreement came
days after Russia and the United States reached a rare agreement on
Syria -- a plan for eliminating the country's chemical weapons
stockpile. Even Syria agreed to the plan, and U.S. President Barack
Obama has held back on possible military action while diplomatic options
play out.
But even before seeing a Security Council resolution, the Syrian regime claimed an international win.
Prime Minister Wael
al-Halqi cited "major achievements made by the Syrians in facing the
universal war," the Syrian Arab News Agency reported Wednesday.
Al-Halqi also told the
Syrian Cabinet about "brilliant victories of the Syrian diplomacy
realized ... in terms of preventing the U.S. from launching a military
aggression against Syria."
But the diplomacy hasn't
stopped bloodshed. The opposition Local Coordination Committees of
Syria reported Wednesday that regime forces killed 24 people in the
village of Kafr Zeiba in Idlib province.