The NPR News reported that inspectors haven't yet been able to access the site of an alleged chemical weapons attack in Syria that prompted a U.S.-led coalition to launch airstrikes against suspected Syrian chemical sites on Friday. And the parties involved are trading blame about why.
The Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons said that a team of nine inspectors arrived in Damascus on Saturday, after it was invited by Syria and Russia to investigate the apparent chemical attack just over a week ago on on Douma, according to NPR.
The Director-General of the OPCW, Ahmet Üzümcü, told representatives Monday that team members have met with Syrian officials in Damascus, but they haven't gotten into Douma, about 11 miles away.
"The Syrian and Russian officials who participated in the preparatory meetings in Damascus have informed the [Fact-Finding Mission] Team that there were still pending security issues to be worked out before any deployment could take place," Üzümcü said.
The report mentioned that the international chemical weapons watchdog doesn't have the mandate to determine who is responsible for the attack, only to ascertain whether a chemical weapon was used. And it's worth noting that Russia vetoed a U.S.-drafted U.N. Security Council resolution that would have allowed for a wider investigation for a wider investigation.
The U.S. representative to the OPCW, Kenneth Ward, at a meeting on Monday raised concerns that Russia may have meddled with the site after visiting it before the fact finding mission, but the Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov told the BBC on Monday that he can "guarantee that Russia has not tampered with the site."
The state news agency SANA claimed that the regime is fully cooperating with the inspectors.