SOCHI. May 17 (Interfax) - Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said he expected the Syrian government and the UN to agree on chemical weapons inspections in Syria on the issue of possible use of chemical weapons in the country.
"As far as we know, the Syrian government has expressed readiness to consider requests for holding inspections in other Syrian regions after the inspection outside Aleppo is completed," Lavrov said at a news conference in Sochi on the results of talks with UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon on Friday.
Lavrov said that he was surprised that the UK and France submitted requests for inspections regarding the possible use of chemical weapons in Syria in December 2012 to the UN only three months later.
"I do not know why these two countries concerned waited for almost three months. But this suggests that clarifying the situation with chemical weapons probably was not the most important thing for them because if it had been, they would have done this in December," Lavrov said.
Ban said his position regarding a mandate for inspections in Syria regarding the possible use of chemical weapons remained unchanged.
The UN secretary-general said he has a mandate to conduct investigations when some allegations exist on possible violations. The first request for an inquiry was from Syria, which was followed by requests from the British and French governments, and this is why Ban said he decided to conduct an investigation.