Syria's State TV: Chemical Weapons Experts Enter Douma

Syrian state television says inspectors from the global chemical weapons watchdog have entered Douma, where a suspected chemical attack killed dozens of people earlier this month.

There was no immediate comment from the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons.

The U.S. State Department had accused Russia of trying to block the inspectors from investigating the deadly attack in Douma, near Damascus, "by making it more complicated" for the specialists to do their work.  

"They probably want to do that because they recognize that the longer that a site goes untested the more that the elements, the chemicals, can start to disappear," State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert told Alhurra television.

Russia had blamed the delays on airstrikes carried out Saturday by the United States, France and Britain on three Syrian chemical weapons facilities.  Russia's Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov also said the mission was not allowed in because it lacked approval from the United Nation’s Department for Safety and Security.

U.N. officials in New York disputed the claim.

The U.S. envoy to the OPCW, Ken Ward, said Monday it was his understanding Russia had already visited the site and he raised concerns of tampering before the OPCW carries out its fact-finding mission.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov denied that accusation, telling the BBC he guarantees Russia "has not tampered with the site."

Lavrov said that evidence cited by the United States, Britain and France to justify Saturday's missile attack was based "on media reports and social media." He denied any chemical weapons attack had occurred, accusing Britain of staging the attack.

The U.S. and its allies blame the regime of Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad for the deadly chemical weapons attack.

Syrian media reported another missile attack early Thursday in Homs province, but later said it was a false alarm and not an outside attack that triggered air defense systems.

Meanwhile, State Department spokesperson Nauert told Alhurra the United States is pushing for a renewed focus on the so-called Geneva process the United Nations began in 2012 as a roadmap for ending the Syrian conflict with a new constitution and elections.

"The only thing that I can hope that is positive that came out of the terrible news in Syria last week is to reinvigorate that political process," she said.  "So it is our hope now that countries will go back to the Geneva process and we’ll be able to make some progress there."

EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini made a similar call Monday ahead of a ministerial meeting, saying there is a clear need to push for re-launching the U.N.-led peace process.

VOA's Margaret Besheer contributed to this report from the United Nations.