“There are reports of yet another chemical weapons attack on Sunday.
Victims of what appears to be chlorine gas are pouring into hospitals,”
US envoy to the UN Niki Haley said.
“So, we proposed the Security Council press statement condemning
these attacks. So far, Russia has delayed the adoption of the statement;
a simple condemnation of Syrian children being suffocated by chlorine
gas,” she added.
Britain’s representative at the meeting also lashed out at Russia for
vetoing investigation into chemical incidents in Syria for three times,
saying Moscow has been shielding the Syrian government.
Addressing the council members, Russia’s Ambassador to the UN Vasily
Alekseevich Nebenzya rejected any use of chemical weapons by Damascus
and accused the Western media outlets of what he called “propagandistic
campaign.”
“Recently, there has been all the fuss about the alleged use of
chlorine in Damascus suburbs. There are even rumors about Sarin being
used. Where? When? By whom? What comes with this propagandistic campaign
is nothing new,” Nebenzya said.
The Russian ambassador also accused the US and Britain of using the
issue to sabotage Moscow’s efforts to find a political solution to the
crisis in Syria.
“Today’s meeting is being used by the US and UK to slander the
Russian Federation. We can see clearly why this is taking place. Some
are concerned about the success of the Syrian national dialogue
conference in Sochi. There are concerns about the prospect to breathe
new life into the political process in Syria,” he noted.
Around 1,600 delegates representing a wide range of Syrian political
factions attended the Sochi talks in late January. The event was
boycotted by the High Negotiations Committee, which is based in and
guided by Saudi Arabia.
Damascus welcomed the results of the event and stressed that its
final statement affirmed that political progress in Syria cannot begin
except under the Syrian leadership and without any foreign interference. UN Special Envoy for Syria Staffan de Mistura (C) delivers a
speech at the end of a plenary session at the Congress of Syrian
National Dialogue in Russian port city of Sochi on January 30, 2018.
(AFP photo)
Apart from Washington’s claim about a chemical attack on Sunday, US
Defense Secretary Jim Mattis said Friday that the White House was
concerned that militants had been attacked by sarin, an allegation that
Damascus dismissed as US “lies.” Read more:
Since the beginning of the conflict in Syria in early 2011, the
Western governments have on several occasions accused Syria of using
chemical weapons against militants. Damascus has denied the allegation,
saying it is meant to pile more pressure on the government forces and
delay their success in the fight against terrorists.
Last year, the US and allies in Europe said Syria and Russia, an ally
of Damascus in the fight against terror, used chemical weapons against
militants in Khan Sheikhun in the province of Idlib. Moscow swiftly
rejected the allegations, saying its fighter jets had in fact bombarded a
depot in the area in which the militants had stored chemicals.
The Syrian government and allied fighters have managed to liberate
most of the territories that used to be under the control of the
militants for the past years.
Damascus still maintains that foreign governments, including the US,
fanned the flames of militancy in Syria by providing weapons and
training to certain groups of militants. The government says if it was
not for the support of certain foreign states, the militancy could have
not gone out of hand in such a devastating degree.
The seven-year war in Syria has killed more than 350,000 people, according to the United Nations' estimates.
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