UN WEAPONS INSPECTORS TO LEAVE SYRIA
New York, 24 Shawwal 1434/31 August 2013 (MINA) – The UN announced on Friday that a team of experts from the United Nations have finished gathering evidence of a suspected Syrian chemical weapons attack that killed hundreds of people in suburbs near Damascus last week.
UN spokesperson Martin Nesirky said the inspectors would be leaving Syria on Saturday but would return later to investigate several other alleged poison gas attacks that have taken place in Syria during the country’s two-and-a-half-year civil war.
However, the envoys announced that it may take weeks to analyse the samples, Aljazeera quoted by Mi’raj News Agency (MINA) as reporting.
The announcement came as Washington suggested the UN investigation would have no bearing on its decision about whether to attack Syria in retaliation for the alleged poison gas attack on civilians.
Russia, diplomats said, was hoping to use the time needed to complete the UN probe to slow down the push for air strikes.
“The samples that have been collected will be taken to be analysed in designated laboratories, and the intention of course is to expedite the analysis of that sampling that’s been taken,” Nesirky said.
Nesirky did not give a definite time when the analysis will be completed, but said all samples would need to be fully analysed.
“This is a scientific process. The only result that counts is the result of the analysis in laboratories and the analysis of the evidence that’s been collected through witness statements and so on.”
Aljazeera source report that Ban informed that analysis of the samples could take up to two weeks.
Ban cut short a visit to Europe amid concerns that Western powers are preparing military strikes against Syria to punish the government of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad for the alleged chemical attack.
An unclassified report by US intelligence agencies released on Friday said the attack killed 1,429 Syrian civilians, including 426 children. (T/P09/P04).
Mi’raj News Agency (MINA)
