In an interview with Al-Alam, Sharif Shahadeh said the US government is seeking to halt the dispatch of UN fact finding committee to the district of Khan-al-Assal in Aleppo province.

He said the Syrian government has already asked the UN committee to visit the disputed district in order to get more proofs over earlier statements concerning the use of chemical weapons by foreign-backed militant groups.

The lawmaker said the US double policy in this regards shows that the US government is not so serious about the inauguration UN chemical weapons investigation.

‘So the Syrian government has already urged the fact finding committee to announce its time schedule as well as places set to be visited earlier. This is while the committee should be accompanies by a Syrian technical team who is obliged to prepare all the reports for the government,’ the lawmaker added.

Shahadeh said all these initiatives are required to avoid any other rumors which could be made over the use of chemical weapons by army troops in other areas including Damascus or Homs provinces.

The United Nations has already accepted the Syrian government's invitation for a visit by two senior UN officials for talks on the purported use of chemical weapons in the country's bloody civil war.

The offer of talks was made to Swedish scientist Ake Sellstrom, named by the United Nations to investigate the claims, and Angela Kane, UN High Representative for Disarmament.

Sellstrom and Kane have accepted the invitation "with a view to completing the consultations on the modalities of cooperation required for the proper, safe and efficient conduct of the UN mission to investigate allegations of the use of chemical weapons in Syria," said Martin Nesirky, spokesman for the UN chief.

Nesirky did not specify a date for the visit.

NJF/NJF