Mr. Shamkhani and Russian Security Council Secretary Nikolai Patrushev talked over the phone the US strikes, where Iranian official called for an international independent fact-finding committee to investigate the chemical attack in Idlib and to shed some light to the issue to inform the international public. "With Syria having destroyed its chemical stockpile under the auspices and supervision of the UN years ago, the country would have not chemical weapons whatsoever to use against citizens," Mr. Shamkhani told the Russian counterpart, believing that parties with interest and intervention in Syria were responsible for the stockpile which had gone unnoticed by the international community and was hit quite accidentally by air strike.
Secretary of Supreme National Security Council denounced the US strikes in al-Shayrat air base as illegal and interventionist action which systematically hampered the peace process by good offices of Iran and Russia and destabilized the region eve further. "Strict fight against terrorism will never be abandoned in close cooperation with Russia," he added.
Mr. Patrushev for his part, condemned the US air strike by 59 Tomahawk missiles fired from US airships in eastern Mediterranean as violation of the international rules and as a boon for terrorist groups who rejoiced on the prospects of the strike; "The hollow claims made by different US administrations go back to 2003 when Bush administration, unconvinced that Saddam Hussein had no chemical weapons, invaded the country just to find latter that the decision had been misguided and was based on inaccurate accounts given by the intelligence community; the strike and implicating Assad on the chemical episode seek to press Assad to the edges and to impede the peace process," said the Russian official.
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