Photo ITAR-TASS / Michael Pochuev

LONDON, September 20 (Itar-Tass) – Chemical weapons got   into the hands of fundamentalists, fighting against the   Syrian government, from Libya – after the overthrow in 2011   of the government of Muammar Gaddafi. This statement was   made by Syrian Deputy Prime Minister for Economic Affairs   Qadri Jamil in an interview published by The Guardian on   Friday.

According to Jamil, the UN report on the chemical   weapons attack near Damascus on August 21, which killed   more than 1,000 people, presented on Monday, was “not   thoroughly objective.” He said Russia had produced evidence   showing the rockets that were identified by the UN   inspectors as carrying sarin were indeed Soviet-made. But   he said they had been exported from Russia to Syria in the   1970s.

“They were loaded with chemicals by Gaddafi and   exported to fundamentalists in Syria after Gaddafi fell,”   he said.

After the 2011 war in Libya, which led to the overthrow   of the country’s authorities, the African country found   itself in chaos, in terms of manageability and security,   Western experts write. The new government cannot take under   control the armed groups of “ex-revolutionaries” who   refused to join the ranks of the police and the army or lay   down their arms. Against the background of security crisis   in the country, the stockpiles of chemical weapons were   found in the country that during the Gaddafi rule had been   hidden from the “declaration” process to the Organisation   for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) in The   Hague. The UN has now more clearly expressed concern about   the smuggling of arms and ammunition from Libya to Syria.