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September 3, 2013

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Russia to send delegation to US over Syria

Source: Agencies | September 3, 2013, Tuesday | Print Edition

President Vladimir Putin hopes to send a delegation of Russian lawmakers to the United States to discuss the situation in Syria with members of Congress, the Interfax news agency reported yesterday.

Russian legislators Valentina Matvienko and Sergei Naryshkin proposed the move to Putin, saying polls had shown little support among Americans for armed intervention in Syria to punish its government for an alleged chemical weapons attack.

The lawmakers said maybe US legislators could be persuaded to take a “balanced stance” on the issue. Putin supported the initiative, which would require formal approval by his foreign ministry.

Meanwhile, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov yesterday dismissed US evidence of the alleged chemical weapons use by the Syrian government as “absolutely unconvincing.”

He said the evidence presented by the US to Moscow showed “there was nothing specific there, no geographic coordinates, no names, no proof that the tests were carried out by the professionals.” He did not describe the tests further.

The US said it has proof that the government of President Bashar Assad is behind attacks that Washington claims killed at least 1,429 people, including more than 400 children in a suburb of the Syrian capital of Damascus on August 21. Syrian officials have denied the allegations, blaming rebel fighters.

Lavrov brushed aside Western assertions of an alleged Syrian government role.

“What our American, British and French partners showed us in the past and have showed just recently is absolutely unconvincing,” Lavrov said. “And when you ask for more detailed proof, they say all of this is classified so we cannot show this to you.”

Russia is sending a reconnaissance ship to the eastern Mediterranean, Interfax news agency said yesterday.

The Priazovye left the Ukrainian Black Sea port of Sevastopol on Sunday on a mission “to gather current information in the area of the escalating conflict,” the report quoted an unidentified military source as saying.

In Damascus, the Syria representative of the UN refugee agency, Tarik Kurdi, said 5 million Syrians had been displaced inside the country by the war. In addition, nearly 2 million Syrians had fled to neighboring countries, according to previous UN figures.


 

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