TEHRAN – Iranian President Hassan Rouhani suggested on Saturday that an international fact-finding committee should be formed to probe the allegations of chemical weapons attack in Syria.

The suggestion by Rouhani came one day after the U.S. launched cruise missiles at the Shayrat airfield in Syria from which President Donald Trump claimed a chemical weapons attack had been launched.

“Biased people should not be a member to this committee and it should not be headed by the U.S.,” Rouhani insisted. 

He added, “Neutral countries should investigate the issue and make it clear where the chemical weapons had come from and by whom and also whether there were chemical weapons.” 

The UN confirmed in 2013 that the Syrian government had turned over all its chemical weapons stockpiles and the claim of using chemical weapons should be investigated, Rouhani remarked.

The president also said that the U.S. government considers itself the “police”, “leader” and “judge” of the world” and took action by launching airstrike against Syria.

“Aggression against an independent country happened for what reason? The man who rules the U.S. claimed that he seeks to fight terrorists, but this action of the U.S. made all the terrorists happy,” Rouhani noted.

A suspected chemical attack in the northern Syrian province of Idlib on Tuesday left at least 80 people killed and hundreds injured.

After a chemical attack on Ghouta, a Damascus suburb, in 2013, Barack Obama, the former U.S. president, threatened an air campaign against the Syrian government which was called off when the Syrian government accepted a U.S.–Russian negotiated deal to turn over “every single bit” of its chemical weapons stockpiles for destruction and declared its intention to join the Chemical Weapons Convention.

Russia said on Wednesday that the chemical attack was caused when rebel chemical munitions workshops were hit by a Syrian airstrike.

Also in a phone conversation with Secretary of the Russian Security Council Nikolai Patrushev on Saturday, Iran’s Supreme National Security Council secretary Ali Shamkhani called for formation of an international committee to investigate the chemical attack in Idlib.

Shamkhani said actions such as the U.S. airstrike against Syria will harm the process of Iran-Russia-Syria cooperation in fighting terrorism.

Patrushev described the U.S. attack as a clear violation of the international law.

NA/PA