Russia pushes for UN probe into Syria chemical attack

BEIRUT — Russia’s foreign minister says Moscow expects the United Nations’s chemical weapons watchdog to conduct an extensive probe into last week’s chemical attack in Syria.

Sergey Lavrov says Thursday that inspectors from the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons should both visit the Syrian air base, which the US said had served as a platform for the attack, and the town of Khan Sheikhoun in the northern Idlib province that was hit to get a full and objective picture.

He said Russia vetoed a Western draft UN resolution Wednesday because it failed to mention the need to inspect the area of the attack.

The US blamed the Syrian government for launching the attack, but Russia claimed that the victims were killed by toxic agents released from a rebel chemical arsenal hit by Syrian warplanes.

— AP