Ja’afari noted Syria is examining samples from the site on the outskirts of Damascus where there was an alleged use of chemical weapons against civilians in August.

The Syrian government is preparing a parallel report to the one prepared by the delegation of UN inspectors to Syria that is expected to be published in coming days.

Al-Jaafri also announced on Thursday night that Syria has legally become a member of the chemical weapons nonproliferation treaty, al-Ja’afari told Lebanese newspaper An-Nahar.

The foreign-backed militants in Syria accused the Syrian government of a chemical attack on the 21st of August in a Damascus suburb which was under their own control for months. The Syrian officials have strongly dismissed the accusations which were echoed by the US as well.

UN-based diplomats have said inspectors' report will not be about who was responsible for the attack.

Under the UN mandate, the inspectors are only authorized to conclude whether chemical weapons have been used in Syria, not assign responsibility for their use, according to Foreign Policy Magazine.

Although their mandate and UN protocols limit the questions that the inspectors address, the report is expected to put forward enough data for others — the UN general assembly, the security council and their member governments — to tell which side was behind the attack and take appropriate action.

NTJ/SHI