U.N. chemical weapons inspectors to return to Syria

U.N. investigators are planning to return to Syria soon to follow up on several more allegations of chemical weapons use.
Ake Sellstrom, the head of the inspection team that visited after an August 21 attack, told CNN that the next visit could take place as early as next week.
The news might please Russia, which slammed a recent U.N. chemical weapons report as "one-sided" and called for inspectors to return to Syria.
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Soon after Western countries said the U.N. findings implicated the Syrian regime in using sarin gas, Russia fired back, calling the report "distorted."
Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov also told Russia Today that the report was built on insufficient information. He said Russia has its own evidence from the site of the August 21 attack that, according to U.S. estimates, killed more than 1,400 people.
"This analysis is not finished, so the point here is not about accusing parties. But the point is ... that those inspectors of the U.N. should come back to Syria to complete their investigation," Ryabkov told Russia Today.
In the same interview, he said Syria gave Russia evidence that implicates rebels in the August 21 attack.
"This confirmation and this evidence has been transmitted to the Russian side ... and we are in the process of studying those," he said. There was no mention of what the evidence might be.
Russia has been a strong ally of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's regime, and Russian defense contracts with Syria have probably exceeded $4 billion.
Al-Assad met Wednesday with a U.S. delegation in Damascus, telling its members that the "U.S. administration policies in the region do not serve the American people," the state-run Syrian Arab News Agency reported.

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Al-Assad also met with Ryabkov, Syrian state television reported.
He "expressed his and the Syrian people's gratitude for the Russian positions supporting Syria in confronting the aggressive attack and the terrorism that is aided by Western, Arab and regional states," Syria state TV reported.
Moscow's reaction to the U.N. report has been starkly different from those of the United States and France.
"Based on our preliminary review of information contained in the report, several crucial details confirm the Assad regime's guilt in carrying out this attack," U.S. State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki said Tuesday.
She said one of the munitions identified in the report, a 120 mm improvised rocket, has been linked to previous attacks by al-Assad's regime, and "we have no indications that the opposition has manufactured or used this style rocket."
French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius said his country also believes the report proves the Syrian regime used chemical warfare in opposition strongholds near Damascus.
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Syrian government claims a win
U.N. Security Council members was expected to meet again Wednesday to try to hammer out a resolution to get Syria to give up its chemical weapons.
Reaching a deal will be tough. U.S. and French officials want to include the threat of military action in case Syria doesn't comply, but Russian officials don't want any wording that could countenance the use of force.
The latest disagreement came days after Russia and the United States reached a rare agreement on Syria -- a plan for eliminating the country's chemical weapons stockpile. Even Syria agreed to the plan, and U.S. President Barack Obama has held back on possible military action while diplomatic options play out.
But even before seeing a Security Council resolution, the Syrian regime claimed an international win.
Prime Minister Wael al-Halqi cited "major achievements made by the Syrians in facing the universal war," the state-run Syrian Arab News Agency reported Wednesday.
Al-Halqi also told the Syrian Cabinet about "brilliant victories of the Syrian diplomacy realized ... in terms of preventing the U.S. from launching a military aggression against Syria."
But the diplomacy hasn't stopped bloodshed. The opposition Local Coordination Committees of Syria reported Wednesday that regime forces killed 24 people in the village of Kafr Zeiba in Idlib province.