DHAKA: The Syrian regime has handed Russia new materials implicating rebels in a chemical attack outside Damascus on August 21, Russian deputy foreign minister Sergei Ryabkov said on Wednesday after talks in Damascus.

‘The corresponding materials were handed to the Russian side. We were told that they were evidence that the rebels are implicated in the chemical attack,’ Ryabkov was quoted as saying by Russian news agencies after talks with Syrian foreign minister Walid al-Muallem late Tuesday.

He said that Russia would ‘examine the Syrian materials implicating the rebels with the utmost seriousness’, reports The Straits Times.

To the fury of the West, Russia has repeatedly expressed suspicion that the chemical attack was a ‘provocation’ staged by the rebels with the aim of attracting Western military intervention in the conflict.

BDST: 1429 HRS, SEPT 18, 2013
RoR/BSK