"A press briefing was held at the 24th session of the UN Security Council's Human Rights Council in Geneva on September 9 which dealt with human rights and armed conflicts, the US threat to use force against Syria and international law. International experts, Syrian public and religious leaders, and Rossiya 24 correspondent Anastasia Popova who has worked in Syria for a long time, presented their reports," it said in a statement posted on its website on Tuesday.
Continue after the break. 
"Convincing evidence was demonstrated proving that videos and photos showing victims of the chemical attack near Damascus on August 21 were fake. Evidence was provided by numerous witnesses, who said unanimously that chemical weapons were used in Western Ghouta by the militants. Reports on the inquiries carried out by activists, and eyewitnesses' accounts were handed over to the Independent Commission of Inquiry on the Syrian Arab Republic," the Russian Foreign Ministry said.


(c) Photo: EPA
All speakers confirmed that a military scenario targeting Syria, bypassing the UN Security Council, would be a crude violation of international law.
"They also said that the international community does not support the United States' plan to deliver a strike against Syria, which can be inferred from the results of the G20 summit in St. Petersburg," the Russian Foreign Ministry said.
"Special emphasis was laid on the fact that external interference would lead to fatalities and a humanitarian catastrophe for Syria and for the region as a whole, and play into the hands of the extremists. The speakers said that the American leadership must bear responsibility for the illegal threats to use force against Syria and urged the UN to prevent the strike," it said.
Voice of Russia, Interfax
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