20 Mar 2013 20:02

Senior Russian diplomat urges probing reports about use of chemical arms in Syria

MOSCOW. March 20 (Interfax) - A Russian deputy foreign minister has said there is no "unequivocal evidence" that chemical arms have been used in Syria.

"The story about the use of chemical weapons in Syria must be thoroughly investigated. So far there is no unequivocal evidence of that," Gennady Gatilov tweeted.

"We have already warned about the danger of such weapons ending up in the hands of militants, which may bring the Syrian crisis to a new level of confrontation," he said.

On Tuesday, the regime of President Bashar al-Assad accused rebels of using chemical weapons in Aleppo province. The rebels claimed that government forces had fired a rocket with a chemical charge.