Deputy Prime Minister for Economic Affairs and Minister of Economy and Internal Trade, Qadri Jamil has ruled out the possibility that Syrian authorities or the opposition used chemical weapons, given the presence of the U.N. investigation team, but said he does not rule out the possibility that a “third party” was involved.
“The regime has no interest in using the chemical weapons because of the presence of the international committee,” Jamil said, but added that, “I don’t exclude the presence of a third party in this case. My personal opinion is that international intelligence is behind what happened.”
Jamil, who is also the Secretary of the People's Will Party, said that his party “supports a transparent investigation to uncover the perpetrator of the chemical crime.".
“I called on Arab and Western countries to expand the task of the U.N. investigation committee based in Damascus to include investigation of the recent incident,” he said.
The team arrived in Syria last Sunday, with a mandate to inspect three sites of alleged chemical weapons use. While their mission is to investigate whether chemical weapons were used in the conflict, it does not include investigations to determine the party responsible for their use.
Translated and edited by The Syrian Observer
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