Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has said Chechen commander Shamil Basayev directed the hostage-taking raid in southern Russia's Beslan last week. "I know for certain, that Shamil Basayev directly managed this operation," Lavrov said in an interview with Aljazeera on Friday. He did not, however, provide evidence. Other Russian officials had said evidence linked Basayev to the attack on the school in a region neighbouring Chechnya, but Lavrov's statement is the clearest accusation against the prominent separatist leader so far. Lavrov also said Russian officials' statements that there were Arabs among the attackers were accurate. So far, officials have not provided evidence publicly to support claims that about 10 of the hostage-takers were Arabs. Basayev has been involved in or has claimed responsibility for hostage raids and other attacks outside Chechnya during a decade of war and chaos in the region, including a 1995 attack on a hospital in Dagestan and a well-coordinated assault targeting police in Ingushetia - sandwiched between Chechnya and North Ossetia - in June. Lavrov also laid indirect blame for the school seizure and other attacks on Aslan Maskhadov, another separatist leader who was elected president of Chechnya in 1997 after a Russian withdrawal left the region with de facto independence. Maskhadov "openly stated that as long as Russia's policy in the North Caucasus remains unchanged, there is no avoiding terrorist acts. This is instigation of terrorism, if not confirmation of the fact he directed it all", Lavrov said. **PHOTO CAPTION*** Chechen commander Shamil Basayev.