MOSCOW, March 25 (Xinhua) -- Russian Foreign Ministry on Monday said that United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon's decision to expand the mandate of a mission to probe all alleged instances of chemical weapons used in Syria is counterproductive.
"There are no facts proving the use of chemical weapons in Syria except for the incident of March 19," said Alexander Lukashevich, the spokesman for the Russian Foreign Ministry, in an online comment, insisting Ban's decision came "under the pressure of some of the UN Security Council's Western members."
Lukashevich also stressed the necessity to conduct a " depoliticised and impartial investigation" into the specific circumstances registered on March 19 in Syria's Aleppo.
"Attempts to delay the U.N.-led investigation of one of the most pressing issues into an element of additional pressure for changing the regime in the country are unacceptable," the Interfax news agency quoted the diplomat as saying.
Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Gennady Gatilov, however, on Monday suggested in his Twitter account that "the story about the use of chemical weapons in Syria should be thoroughly investigated. "
"We have already warned about the danger of having these weapons fall into the hands of militants, which can take the Syrian crisis to a new level of confrontation," Gatilov said.
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