Damascus claims US, UK and Turkey provide 'toxic' weapons to groups in Syria
ERBIL, Kurdistan Region — A Syrian minister has accused the United States, United Kingdom and Turkey of supplying “toxic materials and weapons” to groups in Syria, according to the country’s state-run news agency.
SANA reported Deputy Foreign and Expatriates Minister Fayssal Mikdad “pointed out that a number of western states push terrorists to carry out war crimes by supplying them with large quantities of special materials which include Turkish-made chemical materials, and according to experts, these materials are used to manufacture chemical weapons.”
Russia’s state news agency TASS reported that Mikdad said on Wednesday chemical agent depots were found in Aleppo and liberated districts east of Damascus.
“All the special means that have been found include hand grenades and rocket projectiles for grenade launchers, which are supplied with CS and CN irritant agents [they are shown in transparencies]. The discovered chemical munitions shown in the transparency were produced by Federal Laboratories on the US territory. And the chemical agents were produced by Cherming Defence UK and NonLethal Technologies (the USA)," Mikdad said.
Mikdad held a meeting with journalists in Damascus at his ministry’s headquarters where he called on the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) to investigate the “US, Britain and Turkey’s supply to terrorist organizations, which are present in Syria, with internationally-banned poisonous materials,” according to SANA.
The OPCW, the world’s primary chemical weapons watchdog, is located in The Hague and cooperates with but is not a United Nations body.
Russia vetoed a UN Security Council resolution declaring the April 4 attack in Khan Sheikhun to have been chemical in nature. At the time, Moscow said it objected to any such declaration prior to a probe being conducted into the attacks by a geographically diverse team of investigators.
"The fact is that the western states and regional countries have directly or indirectly supplied banned poisonous substances to militants, terrorists and extremists active in Syria," Russian foreign ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova was quoted as saying by TASS.
She added that some parts of this information has been handed over to the United Nations and even made public during bilateral talks, particularly between Russia and the United States.
Russia, the Syrian regime’s primary backer, has blocked eight UN resolutions targeting President Bashar al-Assad’s government since 2011.
Last week, former United Nations prosecutor Carla del Ponte resigned from the UN’s independent Commission of Inquiry on Syria, decrying Security Council inaction to hold criminals accountable in the war-battered country where "everyone is bad."
On Sunday, Ponte was asked in an interview with Swiss newspaper SonntagsZeitung whether there was enough evidence for Assad to be convicted of war crimes.
“Yes, I am convinced that is the case. That is why the situation is so frustrating. The preparatory work has been done. Despite that, there is no prosecutor and no court,” she said.
Ponte was investigating an April 4 attack in Khan Sheikhoun located in the southern Idlib Governorate of northwestern Syria, where 92 people died, including at least 30 children, with hundreds more injured.
The Syrian government has repeatedly dismissed claims that it is using chemical weapons in its attacks. The government also insists that their attacks were intended to take out militant and opposition groups in the regions.
Before the April 4 attacks on Khan Sheikhoun, previous chemical strikes targeted eastern Hama on December 11 and 12, 2016, as well as northern Hama near Khan Sheikhoun on March 30, 2017.
"All four of these attacks were in areas where opposition or ISIS forces were launching an offensive that threatened government military air bases," Human Rights Watch Executive Director Ken Roth said at the United Nations in May.
The US unilaterally responded to the April attacks by launching Tomahawk missiles at an airfield it believed was used to launch the attacks.
Assad has denied the allegations, claiming the attack was a "fabrication" to justify the missile strike on Syrian forces, in an interview with AFP.
SANA reported Deputy Foreign and Expatriates Minister Fayssal Mikdad “pointed out that a number of western states push terrorists to carry out war crimes by supplying them with large quantities of special materials which include Turkish-made chemical materials, and according to experts, these materials are used to manufacture chemical weapons.”
Russia’s state news agency TASS reported that Mikdad said on Wednesday chemical agent depots were found in Aleppo and liberated districts east of Damascus.
“All the special means that have been found include hand grenades and rocket projectiles for grenade launchers, which are supplied with CS and CN irritant agents [they are shown in transparencies]. The discovered chemical munitions shown in the transparency were produced by Federal Laboratories on the US territory. And the chemical agents were produced by Cherming Defence UK and NonLethal Technologies (the USA)," Mikdad said.
Mikdad held a meeting with journalists in Damascus at his ministry’s headquarters where he called on the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) to investigate the “US, Britain and Turkey’s supply to terrorist organizations, which are present in Syria, with internationally-banned poisonous materials,” according to SANA.
The OPCW, the world’s primary chemical weapons watchdog, is located in The Hague and cooperates with but is not a United Nations body.
Russia vetoed a UN Security Council resolution declaring the April 4 attack in Khan Sheikhun to have been chemical in nature. At the time, Moscow said it objected to any such declaration prior to a probe being conducted into the attacks by a geographically diverse team of investigators.
"The fact is that the western states and regional countries have directly or indirectly supplied banned poisonous substances to militants, terrorists and extremists active in Syria," Russian foreign ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova was quoted as saying by TASS.
She added that some parts of this information has been handed over to the United Nations and even made public during bilateral talks, particularly between Russia and the United States.
Russia, the Syrian regime’s primary backer, has blocked eight UN resolutions targeting President Bashar al-Assad’s government since 2011.
Last week, former United Nations prosecutor Carla del Ponte resigned from the UN’s independent Commission of Inquiry on Syria, decrying Security Council inaction to hold criminals accountable in the war-battered country where "everyone is bad."
On Sunday, Ponte was asked in an interview with Swiss newspaper SonntagsZeitung whether there was enough evidence for Assad to be convicted of war crimes.
“Yes, I am convinced that is the case. That is why the situation is so frustrating. The preparatory work has been done. Despite that, there is no prosecutor and no court,” she said.
Ponte was investigating an April 4 attack in Khan Sheikhoun located in the southern Idlib Governorate of northwestern Syria, where 92 people died, including at least 30 children, with hundreds more injured.
The Syrian government has repeatedly dismissed claims that it is using chemical weapons in its attacks. The government also insists that their attacks were intended to take out militant and opposition groups in the regions.
Before the April 4 attacks on Khan Sheikhoun, previous chemical strikes targeted eastern Hama on December 11 and 12, 2016, as well as northern Hama near Khan Sheikhoun on March 30, 2017.
"All four of these attacks were in areas where opposition or ISIS forces were launching an offensive that threatened government military air bases," Human Rights Watch Executive Director Ken Roth said at the United Nations in May.
The US unilaterally responded to the April attacks by launching Tomahawk missiles at an airfield it believed was used to launch the attacks.
Assad has denied the allegations, claiming the attack was a "fabrication" to justify the missile strike on Syrian forces, in an interview with AFP.