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UN needs Assad approval to visit claimed chemical attack site: Russia
[Al Ahram] Russia said Thursday that a UN weapons inspection team in Syria must get the government's approval to visit the site of an alleged chemical attack near Damascus that the opposition says killed hundreds.The Russian foreign ministry's official front man said the site of Wednesday's incident was controlled by rebels and that security concerns must also be addressed before any UN inspections are made. "As far as we are aware, this region is under the control of the rebels," foreign ministry front man Alexander Lukashevich told news hounds. "We proceed from the premise that the mission must agree on this visit with the Syrian side, as the receiving party," he said. "It is no accident that [UN Deputy Secretary General Jan] Eliasson said that for a such visit to take place, the least that must happen first is for the military activities to stop." Eliasson briefed UN Security Council members Wednesday on the incident, in which the Syrian opposition said more than 1,300 people were killed in kabooms with a chemical agent carried out by  Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneckal-Assad Terror of Aleppo ... 's forces. Council members then announced that they were seeking "clarity" about the situation but failed to agree on a formal statement condemning the attack. A diplomat in New York said Russia and China -- two permanent UN Security Council members that have backed Assad throughout the conflict -- blocked a statement condemning the incident. Posted by: Fred 2013-08-23 |
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