Posted on 04/20/2017
Syrian government insists it does not use chemical weapons; US vows serious response to attack
Putin, Russian Military Accuse Syrian Rebels of Framing Assad
Putin Says Syrian Rebels Plan to Frame Assad for Future Chemical
Fake chemical attacks in Syria could provoke further US strikes ...
What are the evidence that the al-Assad regime is behind the gas attack on the 4th of April 2017?
Some people believe that the chemical attack in Syria was a false flag and wasn’t carried out by Assad. Could this be true?
Which side of the Syrian conflict orchestrated the chemical attack on civilians in April 2017?
Who is responsible for the gas attack in Syria?
Russia's Defense Ministry denied Tuesday that the Syrian government possessed chemical weapons and accused Syrian opposition forces of staging last week's alleged chemical attack in order to draw the U.S. into the nation's six-year civil war. The statements coincided with comments made by Russian President Vladimir Putin in which he claimed to have evidence that rebels were preparing future chemical attacks.
Russia's Defense Ministry denied Tuesday that the Syrian government possessed chemical weapons and accused Syrian opposition forces of staging last week's alleged chemical attack in order to draw the U.S. into the nation's six-year civil war. The statements coincided with comments made by Russian President Vladimir Putin in which he claimed to have evidence that rebels were preparing future chemical attacks.
Russia's defense ministry released a series of tweets in both Russian and English on its official social media account, charging Syrian rebels with transporting "toxic substances" to insurgent-held areas of the war-torn nation in order to convince the U.S. to step up its efforts to remove Syrian President Bashar al-Assad from power.
"Syria has no chemical weapons. This fact was documented and confirmed by official representatives of the OPCW. Cases of chemical weapons usage by opposition were registered. For some of them, investigation materials were sent to the OPCW. Accusations of chemical weapons’ use by Syrian government in Khan Sheikhoun were analyzed. Their authenticity attracks [sic] doubts, " Russia's defense ministry wrote. "Insurgents are delivering toxic substances to areas of Khan Sheikhoun, Jira airport, East Ghouta and to the west from Aleppo. Insurgents are aimed to attract another reason for accusations of using chemical weapons by Syrian government & provoke new US attacks," the ministry added.
Last week, the U.S. launched its first-ever intentional attack on the Russian-backed Syrian military less than 72 hours after accusing Assad of conducting a sarin gas attack on civilians in the Khan Sheikhoun neighborhood of the northwestern city of Idlib. Moscow argued that the chemical discharge resulted from a Syrian airstrike on a hidden chemical munitions facility used by rebels and previously recognized by the Hague-based Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW).
Additionally, Putin said Tuesday that, "We have information from different sources that these provocations—I cannot call them otherwise—are being prepared in other regions of Syria, including in the southern suburbs of Damascus where there are plans to throw some substance and accuse the official Syrian authorities," according to The Independent.
In response to the alleged chemical attack, the OPCW released a statement last updated Friday saying that it was investigating the incident and would not release any details before its inspection was concluded. The organization was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2013 after declaring, along with the U.S., that the Syrian government had destroyed its chemical weapons stockpiles. Since then, there have been other instances in which both the government and rebels have accused one another of conducting chemical weapons attacks.
Tuesday's tweets came the same day that Secretary of State Rex Tillerson arrived in Moscow for talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin, who claimed Tuesday he had proof that rebels staged chemical attacks for Western support. Days before the alleged chemical attack and President Trump's subsequent airstrike in Syria, Tillerson had said that the "longer term status of President Assad will be decided by the Syrian people." Like Trump, Tillerson has since expressed harsher criticism of the Syrian leader and was expected to censure Russia over its support for the Syrian government
