Russia slammed the United States on Friday, saying its skepticism over Syria’s chemical weapons is unfounded and shows disrespect for the United Nations and the OPCW.

Russia slammed the United States on Friday, saying its skepticism over Syria’s chemical weapons is unfounded and shows disrespect for the United Nations and the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW).

Washington's UN envoy Samantha Power said this week that the United States was concerned about previous "broken promises" made by the Syrian government.

But Russian foreign ministry spokesman Alexander Lukashevich said the comments showed US disrespect for both the UN and the team from the (OPCW) responsible for implementing the Syrian disarmament plan.

"These unfounded statements about Damascus hiding information are nothing but... a show of disrespect for the work being done in Syria by two esteemed and authoritative organizations -- the United Nations and the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons," Lukashevich told reporters.

The joint Russian-US Syrian chemical weapons disarmament plan was endorsed by the UN Security Council in September.

It requires the destruction of Syria's entire chemical weapons arsenal -- estimated at about 1,000 tones -- by the middle of 2014.