Mr Lavrov said that evidence recently provided by the United States, Britain, and France showing regime culpability for chemical weapons attacks was too vague to stand up to scrutiny.
“What we were shown before and what our American, British and French colleagues sent us more recently absolutely does not convince us,” he said.
His remarks came a day after John Kerry, the US Secretary of State, insisted America had evidence that Bashar al-Assad used sarin gas in the devastating chemical weapons attack that killed more than 1,400 people last month. Mr Kerry used an appearance on Fox News on Sunday morning to pile pressure on the US Congress ahead of a vote on military strikes announced by Barack Obama over the weekend.
Mr Kerry said that he could not contemplate the idea that Congress would grant "impunity to a ruthless dictator to continue to gas his people". He said the US had detected sarin in soil and blood samples obtained from first responders.
Meanwhile it was reported that Russia has dispatched an intelligence ship to the Eastern Mediterranean, as it further beefs up its naval presence in the region ahead of anticipated US strikes against its Syrian ally. » | Roland Oliphant, Moscow | Monday, September 02, 2013
