Syrian regime gives Russia ‘new evidence’ on chemical attack

The Syrian regime has handed Russia new materials implicating rebels in a chemical attack outside Damascus on August 21, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said on Wednesday.

“The corresponding materials were handed to the Russian side. We were told that they were evidence that the rebels are implicated in the chemical attack,” Ryabkov was quoted as saying by Russian news agencies after talks with Syrian Foreign Minister Walid al-Muallem, according to Agence France-Presse.

Ryabkov accused a United Nations report on the Aug. 21 attack, presented earlier in the week by U.N. chief Ban Ki-moon, was selective.

“Without a full picture... we cannot describe the character of the conclusions as anything other than politicized, biased and one-sided,” Ryabkov said.

On Tuesday, U.S. President Barack Obama said the U.N. report detailing the chemical weapons attack in Syria had “changed the international opinion” on the actions of Bashar al-Assad’s regime

While the U.N. report released Monday did not directly attribute blame as to who was responsible for the Aug. 21 attack which Washington says killed 1,400 people, Obama said it nevertheless proved everything his administration had been saying.

“Well, the U.N. process has now played itself out, the investigators have unequivocally said that chemical weapons were used,” Obama told the Spanish language Telemundo network.

“When you look at the details of the evidence they present -- it is inconceivable that anybody other than the regime used it.

“What that does I think is change the international dynamic. I think it changes international opinion on this issue,” Obama said.”

(With AFP)