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OPCW experts unlikely to enter Douma on Wednesday: UN source

April 20, 2018 12:43·

Debris surround the Syrian Scientific Research Center which was attacked by U.S. British and French military strikes to punish President Bashar Assad for suspected chemical attack against civilians in Barzeh near Damascus Syria Saturday

Earlier, Britain's embassy to the Netherlands said Russian Federation and Syria had not yet allowed a team from the OPCW to enter Douma, where an attack on April 7, allegedly using chlorine and sarin, killed at least 40 people.

The British delegation to the organization called for the inspectors to be given "unfettered access" to Douma, adding that "Russia and Syria must cooperate".

The OPCW team arrived in Syria shortly before the air strikes and met with Syrian officials. "I am confident that they will have full access, without any restrictions or impediments to perform their activities", Guterres added. Liz Kendall said Assad's use of chemical weapons "cannot go unanswered" and her colleague Chris Leslie said "those who seek to take the moral high ground by doing nothing should also be held accountable". That promise was not fully kept; after a chemical attack a year ago, Trump responded by sending US missiles to hit a Syrian airfield.

The Russian military later said that it will help secure the visit of global chemical weapons inspectors to the site of the alleged attack.

The French government said Saturday that it launched a military response based on unspecified intelligence and open-source information, which included "testimonies, photos and videos that spontaneously appeared on specialized websites, in the press and on social media in the hours and days following the attack".

A team of independent investigators have been prevented from reaching the scene of an alleged chemical attack by Syrian and Russian officials.

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Chlorine, in contrast, has been used more widely in Syria's conflict without past USA reprisals, and the chemical itself is far easier to find and weaponize, experts say.

Photographs which claim to show Syrian volunteer rescue workers, known as the White Helmets, staging a chemical attack in Eastern Ghouta were actually taken from a film set, according to Factuel, an AFP fact-checking blog.

The official IRNA news agency quoted Rouhani as saying The U.S. and "some Western countries do not want Syria to reach permanent stability".

The Syrian "White Helmets" rescue organization, which operates in rebel-held areas, has pinpointed for the OPCW team the places where victims of the suspected attack are buried, its head Raed Saleh said on Wednesday. He said European Union foreign ministers will meet Monday to discuss the situation and put forward proposals for steps going forward. They concluded that the attack was consistent with previous attacks carried out by the regime and said no other groups had the means and capabilities to use sarin gas.

The US envoy to the OPCW has expressed concern that Russian Federation had visited the site and "may have tampered with it" to impede the investigation - an allegation Russian Federation has rejected.

The Trump administration has placed sanctions on Russian individuals and entities, including penalties targeting oligarchs who are close to President Vladimir Putin.

The U.S. -led intervention has threatened to escalate confrontation between the West and Assad's backer Russian Federation, although it has had no impact on the fighting on the ground, in which pro-government forces have pressed on with a campaign to crush the rebellion.

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