According to him, Haley was not telling the truth when she said that she was unable to get Nebenzya on the phone to agree on a draft resolution. "We have read all the reports provided by our New York mission - no such efforts were rejected. Experts held meetings, we clarified our stance and the Americans tried to use some cosmetic phrases, pretending that they had taken our concerns into consideration," Lavrov explained.

"It seems, we are witnessing a new phenomenon in international relations, as now, apart from fake news, there is also fake diplomacy," the Russian top diplomat pointed out.

Lavrov noted that Russia had supported the Bolivian-drafted document, which "contained all the necessary amendments that need to be introduced into the activities of the mechanism to ensure that it is honest and objective." "As the US and its allies have vetoed the document, it means that they don’t want this mechanism to be an honest and effective one," he stressed.

On Thursday, Russia vetoed the US-drafted United Nations Security Council resolution on extending the mandate of the Joint Investigative Mechanism (JIM) of the United Nations and the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) in Syria. The Russian-drafted document, aimed at improving the JIM’s activities, failed to gain the necessary number of votes. At the UN Security Council’s meeting, Haley questioned Russia’s initiative to host an all-Syrian conference in Sochi, saying that after Russia had vetoed the US-drafted resolution, the initiative could not be taken seriously.

On Friday, the UN Security Council will hold a closed-door meeting to discuss a new resolution on the JIM’s mandate. According to the Agence France-Presse news agency, Japan has submitted a draft resolution stipulating a technical extension of the mandate for 30 days in order to provide the UNSC with an opportunity to come to terms on the issue