Russia calls on the US, the UK and France to stop using the chemical issue to exert pressure over Damascus and its allies, the Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement released on Friday.
The ministry pointed to the statement made by the Western "Three" - the three permanent members of the UN Security Council - on the fifth anniversary of the tragedy with the use of sarin in Eastern Ghouta. "It is regrettable that Washington, London and Paris used this date, which is tragic for the Syrian people and the whole global community, for promoting their destructive course aimed at discrediting the Syrian president," the ministry noted.
"We call on the pseudo-protectors of the interests of the Syrian people and their accomplices who are following their destructive course to stop using the chemical issue for exerting pressure over Damascus and its allies," the ministry said.
The ministry noted that a number of Western and Middle Eastern states "descended to such inhuman provocations as the chemical attack in Eastern Ghouta committed by terrorists under their Western sponsors’ order" to discredit Syria’s authorities.
Where did the White Helmets go?
It has been long clear to all, including independent experts, that "this and similar barbaric acts were committed by ISIS (a former name for the Islamic State, a terror organization which is outlawed in Russia), militants from the so-called moderate opposition and non-government organizations servicing their interests, such as the notorious White Helmets, that were created and sponsored from abroad." "It is not a coincidence that the White Helmet members are being urgently evacuated from Syria while Syrian territories are being cleared from terrorists. It is obviously being done to conceal the true essence of their goal and criminal activity," the statement says.
Geopolitical ambitions
Moscow stated again that the current situation with the chemical report incited by the Western countries "is inseparably associated with their strive to fulfill their own geopolitical ambitions in the Middle East." "In light of this, we regard the persistent attempts to turn the purely technical Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons into a tool for political pressure by attaching to its Technical Secretariat attributive functions to determine those guilty in the use of the chemical weapons which are not stipulated in the relevant [Chemical Weapons] Convention," the document reads.
Five years since the tragedy
By the end of the summer 2013 Washington’s position over the Syrian conflict had drastically changed due to the reported uses of chemical weapons in the republic. The UN experts confirmed five cases: on March 19 in the Aleppo suburb of Khan al-Asal, on April 29 in Saraqeb in the north of the country, and on August 21, 24 and 25 in the Damascus suburbs of Eastern Ghouta, Jobar and Ashrafieh-Sahnaya. The heaviest death toll was reported in Eastern Ghouta, where from 280 (according to the French intelligence) to 1,700 people (according to the Syrian opposition) were killed in the attacks with the nerve gas sarin.
