MOSCOW: Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov voiced “regret” in a phone call with his US counterpart on Friday (Saturday in Manila) at Washington’s opposition to a Moscow-backed plan to investigate an alleged chemical attack in Syria. In the call with Secretary of State Rex Tillerson which “took place at US initiative,” Lavrov raised the probe proposal made by Russia and Iran at the global chemical arms watchdog, the OPCW, said the Russian foreign ministry. But Moscow and Tehran, allies of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, have sought to clear Damascus of blame. Lavrov and Tillerson “agreed to examine again a possibility of opening an objective probe into this incident under the auspices of the OPCW,” the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), said a ministry statement. Ties between Moscow and Washington have been strained by the Ukraine crisis and the Syrian conflict, the Moscow statement said.

Source: Manila Times April 22, 2017 12:45 UTC