Lavrov says steps taken by US, allies in OPCW aim at changing Syrian regime

ASTANA, April 21. /TASS/. By preventing the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) from making a decision on investigating into the alleged chemical attack in Syria’s Khan Shaykhun, the US and its allies seek to change the Syrian regime, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said on Friday. "The steps taken by the United States and its western allies, who opposed sending experts to find out the truth on the scene of the alleged chemical weapons incident, are rather alarming because behind them, there is an attempt to find a pretext to refrain from implementing the UN Security Council resolution on political settlement as well as to shift the global community’s attention to creating pretexts for changing the regime," the Russian top diplomat said. Lavrov pointed out that a vast majority of the United Nations member states did not approve of such course. "I believe, those supporting the Astana platform set up by Russia and Turkey with Iran’s assistance, also do not agree," he added. OPCW voting On Thursday, the Executive Council of the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons rejected a joint Russian-Iranian proposal concerning the chemical weapons incident which allegedly took place in the Syrian town of Khan Shaykhun, the Idlib Governorate, on April 4. Moscow insisted that an investigated should be conducted on the scene, that is, in Khan Shaykhun and at the Shayrat airbase which became the target of a US missile strike. Russia also said that the investigation should not be based only on information provided by the Syrian opposition members and the data available on the internet, while the make-up of the investigating group should be balanced. Read more