THE HAGUE: Russia and Syria have stalled access to Douma by chemical weapons experts seeking to probe an alleged poison gas attack citing security concerns, diplomats said on Monday, amid US fears that Moscow “may have tampered” with the site.
“The team has not yet deployed to Douma,” the head of the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), Ahmet Uzumcu, said at an emergency session in The Hague.
The closed-door talks at the global chemical watchdog’s headquarters came two days after a wave of punitive missile strikes by the US, Britain and France in Syria, in response to the alleged April 7 toxic arms attack on Douma. The OPCW team had been expected to begin their fieldwork on Sunday.
Uzumcu said “Syrian and the Russian officials who participated in the meetings in Damascus” had informed the fact-finding mission “there were still pending security issues to be worked out before any deployment could take place”.
Evidence of chemical weapons can degrade quickly in the environment, and he urged the team be allowed to deploy to Douma “as quickly as possible”.
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