Russia condemns Western claims on Syria's chemical weapons
4 Min Read
Russia accused Western nations at the UN of using chemical weapons attacks in Syria as a political tool to target Damascus and its allies.
-
Dmitry Polyanskiy, First Deputy Permanent Representative of the Russian Federation to the United Nations, speaks to members of the media before a meeting of the United Nations Security Council, on Tuesday, April 19, 2022, at UN headquarters. (AP)
Russian Deputy Permanent Representative to the UN Dmitry Polyanskiy has accused Western nations of perpetuating false narratives about Syria's chemical weapons program.
Speaking at a UN Security Council meeting on Syria's chemical weapons track, Polyanskiy said that Western countries are engaged in a smear campaign against both Syria and Russia, undermining trust in the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW).
"Instead of establishing the truth around the incident in Duma, the West continued to lie, transforming this web of lies into a massive knot," Polyanskiy said, referring to allegations that Syria's government used chemical weapons in a 2018 attack in Duma.
The OPCW's Investigation and Identification Team attributed the attack to the Syrian Air Force in a 2023 report, a conclusion Polyanskiy, Syrian officials, and subsequent investigations have denied and rejected.
Under the government of President Bashar al-Assad, Syria has maintained that it destroyed its chemical weapons stockpile under OPCW supervision and has dismissed the accusations as baseless.
Polyanskiy reiterated that Syria has been subject to the most intense scrutiny by the OPCW over the past 11 years, arguing that Western countries have used the chemical weapons dossier to politically target Damascus and its allies.
HTS intend to deploy toxic materials in Aleppo, Idlib
On Monday, a reliable Syrian source informed RIA Novosti that militants from Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, formerly known as Jabhat al-Nusra, are preparing to use toxic substances in Syria's Idlib and Aleppo provinces.
An informed source revealed that militants from Hayat Tahrir al-Sham have transferred several cylinders containing toxic gases from a stronghold of the Turkistan Islamic Party near Jisr al-Shughur to southern Idlib and other areas in western Aleppo.
The terrorists carried out this action using ambulances belonging to the White Helmets organization.
In October, the Russian Foreign Intelligence Service reported that Western intelligence agencies were preparing a simulation involving the use of toxic substances in Syria’s Idlib province, intending to accuse the Syrian army and Russian military forces stationed in the Russian industrial zone.
Following that, the plan was to launch a campaign aimed at discrediting Damascus and Moscow at the United Nations and the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW).
Subsequently, Captain Oleg Ignasy, Deputy Head of the Russian Center for Reconciliation of Opposing Sides in Syria, confirmed that the terrorists of Hayat Tahrir al-Sham were planning to carry out the attack.
Read more: We are fighting a common enemy in Syria: Armed groups to Israeli media
In June last year, Jabhat Al-Nusra terrorists transported 20 containers containing unknown, potentially toxic materials from one of the terror group's headquarters on the Western flank of Jisr Al-Shughur in the Idlib southwestern countryside.
British militants in Hayat Tahrir Al-Sham, the rebranded version of the terrorist Jabhat Al-Nusra, arrived at a refrigeration facility used to store foodstuffs to be used out-of-season, taking tightly sealed metal containers out of the facility after they had been stored there for six months.
Local sources told Russian news agency Sputnik at the time that the nature of the containers, their shape, and their mode of transport all indicate that they are used to store toxic material and potentially poisonous gas.
According to the sources, this same shipment was stored in the storage facility in the winter.
