US doing everything to disrupt Syrian-Arab reconciliation: Moscow

By Al Mayadeen English
Source: Agencies
3 Jul 2023 16:19
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The Russian Foreign Intelligence Service accuses the US of supplying ISIS in southern Syria with “missiles with warheads filled with poisonous substances."

Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad receiving an invitation to the Arab summit from Saudi Arabia's Ambassador to Jordan, Nayef bin Bandar Al-Sudairi, May 10, 2023 (AFP)

The Russian Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR) revealed on Monday that the US administration is determined to disturb the recent initiative by Arab states to resume diplomatic relations with Syria.

"Biden’s team is doing everything to disrupt the Arab-Syrian normalization, to discredit the leadership of Syria. For this purpose, provocations are being prepared, including with the use of chemical poisonous substances," the SVR said in a statement.

The Russian Foreign Intelligence Service said that the US had supplied ISIS in southern Syria with "missiles with warheads filled with poisonous substances."

Specifically, the SVR accused the Deputy Commander of the US Central Command, Vice Admiral James Malloy, of being responsible for ISIS attacks in southern Syria and the Damascus region.

"According to the information available in the SVR, the technique of their use was practiced in May in the Syrian province of Idlib by militants of the CIA-controlled local wing of Al-Qaeda, the Hurras al-Din group, as well as extremists from the Islamic Party of Turkestan. About 100 civilians were poisoned back then," the statement read.

In early June, it was reported that US legislators are mulling tightening sanctions on Syria in a bid to undermine the efforts it has so far made as part of the reconciliation process underway with numerous Arab states, which most recently culminated in the country returning to the Arab League after more than a decade of being outside of it.

US Representative Joe Wilson introduced the bill, known as the Assad Regime Anti-Normalization Act of 2023, backed by 35 others, which expands on the Caesar Act introduced in 2020 to impose harsh sanctions on Syria.

The bill would make it so that Arab countries, such as Saudi Arabia and the UAE, are punished for investing in Syria after their rapprochement with the country.

It practically criminalizes investments in Syria making it so that a country making an investment, signing a contract, or donating more than $50,000 to Syrian territories liberated by the Syrian Army would trigger a review for possible financial penalties.

Back in April, Israeli media discussed the Israeli occupation's stark concerns about the Syrian-Gulf rapprochement, underlining that the development does not bode well for "Israel", especially amid thawing ties between Iran and the Gulf states.