“This attack was 100 percent fabricated,” — said the head of Syria, in his first interview after a chemical attack, which caused shock around the world.
“We believe that the West, mainly the United States, acting in collusion with the terrorists. They manufactured this whole story to a pretext for the attack on 7 April on the Syrian government airbase,” added the Syrian President.
Bashar al-Assad has accused Western countries of staging the alleged chemical attack in Khan Sheyhun, which Washington has classified as a war crime.
This alleged chemical attack provoked a sharp rise in tensions over the conflict in Syria. Condemning the barbaric attack, President Donald trump ordered to attack the airbase Shirt. It was the first blow of the USA on the Syrian regime since the conflict began in 2011.
“This attack did not affect our firepower and ability to fight against terrorists,” — says the President of Syria.
To wreak havoc
The U.S. administration has “no doubt” that the Syrian regime is implicated in the alleged chemical attack. Donald trump believes that “maybe” Russia, the main ally of Damascus, knew about the attack.
American diplomacy, on Thursday said that this attack is a “war crime”, and denied allegations made by the Syrian President in an exclusive interview with AFP.
“Unfortunately this is typical of Assad. He’s trying to throw false information to sow panic,” — said state Department spokesman mark Toner (Toner Mark). “This is not only a violation of the rules of war, and, we believe, a war crime,” insists Toner, speaking about the attack on Khan shaykhun.
In an interview with AFP, Syrian President says that the regime no longer has chemical weapons after its destruction in 2013. “We got rid of our Arsenal many years ago, in 2013.”
A new outbreak of tension between America and Russia was felt during the first visit to Moscow by U.S. Secretary of state Rex Tillerson, who met Wednesday with President Vladimir Putin after talks with foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov.
Mr. Tillerson expressed regret about the “low level of trust between our two countries.”
“Now we’re just not getting along with Russia”, — declared the Donald trump, speaking in Washington, mentioning that “our relations with Russia are at record bad levels all the time”. But on Thursday he expressed confidence that “between the US and Russia will all work out.”
In turn, Mr. Putin considers that with arrival to the White house Donald trump bilateral relations worsened, despite the fact that at the beginning of his presidential term, trump advocated a rapprochement with Russia.
But on Thursday, after a meeting with Tillerson, Mr. Lavrov stated that “they were able to develop a common position on the US air strikes in Syria that it won’t happen again.”
Hysteria in the West
“Against the background of unleashed in the West hysteria is fundamentally important not to succumb to provocations and not to allow to break your efforts in the process of Astana in the framework of the Geneva process (on Syria),” — said on Thursday Sergei Lavrov at the talks with the foreign Minister of Syria Walid Muallem.
Another example to illustrate international differences on Syria was the veto imposed by Russia on Wednesday in new York on the draft resolution of the UN security Council, the US, France and Britain, which calls for an investigation into the attack on Khan shaykhun.
Responding to a question by AFP, Assad said that only recognize the results of “impartial investigation” of the attack at Khan shaykhun, making sure that “it will take part of the country, occupying an objective position, and that it will not be used for political purposes.”
The organization for the prohibition of chemical weapons announced the beginning of the investigation and stated that “a preliminary estimation of the experts is that we are talking about credible data.”
Tillerson, who, it would seem, at the end of March getting used to in order to retain power, the Syrian President, during his visit to Moscow demanded an “organized” withdrawal of Bashar al-Assad in the political transition.
But Sergei Lavrov reminded him of the previous attempts to overthrow “dictators” — Saddam Hussein in Iraq and Muammar Gaddafi in Libya, resulting in the chaos in these countries.
Moscow is providing military aid to Damascus from September 2015, and the United States lead an international coalition against ISIS since September 2014.
