The United States said Tuesday that Russia is ignoring "the facts" in Syria when it accuses the rebels of carrying out the August 21 chemical weapons attack near Damascus.
The exchange of words takes place just as US Secretary of State John Kerry and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov came to an agreement to rid Syria of chemical weapons by mid 2014.
Earlier this week, a report released by the UN categorically said that chemical weapons were used in Syria on August 21. The report did not specifically blame the Syria government. However, the size of the munitions and the direction from which they were fired seemed to suggest that the Assad regime was responsible for the attack. The UN Chief Ban Ki-moon has said that the report made for a "chilling reading."
"He's swimming against the tide of international public opinion, but more importantly, the facts," State Department spokeswoman Jennifer Psaki said of Lavrov according to an article in Naharnet.
The U.N. report, "confirms unequivocally that chemical weapons, including the nerve agent sarin, were used in Syria. We all know that. But based on our preliminary view of information contained in the report, several crucial details confirmed the Assad regime's guilt in carrying out this attack," Psaki said.
