U.S. strike could kill Geneva-2 meet: Lavrov

The United States has not produced any convincing evidence to prove that the Syrian government was behind alleged chemical weapons attacks in Syria, said Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov.

“There are a lot of inconsistencies and absurdities in what our American, British and French partners have shown us before, as well as now. It does not convince us at all,” Mr Lavrov said on Monday. U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry told American media on Sunday that the U.S. obtained new evidence of the August 21 chemical attack in a Damascus suburb — hair and blood samples that have “tested positive for signatures of sarin”. However, the new evidence came not from United Nations inspectors but from “independent channels”. Mr. Kerry avoided saying that there is 100 per cent proof of its case against Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad.

“We were shown some pieces of evidence that did not contain anything concrete, neither geographical locations, nor names, nor evidence that samples had been taken by professionals,” Mr. Lavrov said in a speech at the Moscow State Institute of International Relations.

Later on Monday at a press conference with his South-African counterpart, Mr. Lavrov said a U.S. strike against Syria “would push the planned Geneva-2 [Syria peace conference] a long way back or even kill it altogether”.