Syria Denies Plans For A Chemical Attack As Russia Accuses US Of “Provocation”
The Syrian government dismissed the White House’s unsubstantiated, and bizarrely ominous late Monday night allegations that it was preparing a new chemical weapons attack. According to AP, Ali Haidar, the Syrian minister for national reconciliation, dismissed the White House’s warning and said it foreshadowed a diplomatic campaign against Syria at the U.N., according to the AP. Or maybe military campaign.
The Kremlin also dismissed the White House statement, which had warned that Assad and his military would “pay a heavy price” if it goes ahead with the attack. Russian President Vladimir Putin’s spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that “such threats to Syria’s legitimate leaders are unacceptable.” As a reminder, Russia sided with Assad when he denied responsibility for a chemical weapons attack that killed dozens of people in Idlib province on April 4. Days later, President Donald Trump ordered a retaliatory cruise missile strike on a Syrian air base.
Peskov also criticized the Trump administration for using the phrase “another chemical weapons attack,” arguing that an independent investigation into the April attack was never conducted despite Russia’s calls for one. The US has so far not explained why it is against an impartial third party determining all the facts.
A senior Russian lawmaker dismissed the U.S. warning as “provocation.” Frants Klintsevich, first deputy chairman of the defense and security committee in the upper chamber of the Russian parliament, accused the United States of “preparing a new attack on the positions of Syrian forces.” The U.S. strike in April was the first direct American assault on the Syrian government and Trump’s most dramatic military order since becoming president. Trump said at the time that the chemical attack crossed “many, many lines,” and called on “all civilized nations” to join the U.S. in seeking an end to the carnage in Syria.
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