Thursday, April 6th., 2017 Terrorists stockpile chemical weapons in urban areas: Muallem
Thursday, April 6th., 2017
Terrorists stockpile chemical weapons in urban areas: Muallem
Thu Apr 6, 2017 12:53PM
TEHRAN (FNA)- Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Muallem
said Thursday that Damascus has repeatedly warned the UN Security
Council and the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons
(OPCW) that the terrorists of ISIL and Fatah al-Sham Front, also known
as al-Nusra Front, were bringing weapons to Syria from Iraq and Turkey.
Syria’s Foreign Minister
Walid al-Muallem says terrorist groups continue stockpiling chemical
weapons in the country’s urban and residential areas.
The
Jabhat Fateh al-Sham terror group, formerly known as al-Nusra Front,
Daesh “and other [terrorist] organizations continue to store chemical
weapons in urban and residential areas," Muallem told a press conference
in Damascus on Thursday.
He made the remarks two days after a
suspected chemical attack targeted the town of Khan Shaykhun in Syria’s
northwestern Idlib Province. It was followed by alleged air raids that
struck a hospital where victims of the assault were being treated.
The so-called Syrian Observatory for Human Rights put the death toll at 86, including 30 children and 20 women.
Western
countries have pointed the finger at Damascus over the attack while
Syria’s opposition has accused the Syrian government of bombing Khan
Shaykhun with chemical munitions.
A man carries the body of a dead child, after a suspected
gas attack in the town of Khan Shaykhun, Idlib Province, Syria, April 4,
2017. (Photo by Reuters)A
man carries the body of a dead child, after a suspected gas attack in
the town of Khan Shaykhun, Idlib Province, Syria, April 4, 2017. (Photo
by Reuters)Commenting on the incident, Muallem assured that Damascus did not and would not use chemical arms, even against terror outfits.
"I
stress to you once again: the Syrian army has not, did not and will not
use this kind of weapons -- not just against our own people, but even
against the terrorists that attack our civilians with their mortar
rounds," he said.
The top Syrian diplomat also noted
that the Syrian military had carried out an airstrike on a depot, where
terrorists stored chemical weapons.
"The first air raid conducted
by the Syrian army was at 11:30 am (0830 GMT) on that day (Tuesday) and
it attacked an arms depot belonging to al-Nusra Front that contained
chemical weapons," he said.
The remarks echoed those by Russia’s
Defense Ministry that a Syrian strike had hit a "terrorist warehouse"
used for making bombs containing "toxic substances.” Read more:
A
man breathes through an oxygen mask as another one receives treatment,
after a suspected gas attack in the town of Khan Shaykhun, Idlib
Province, Syria, April 4, 2017. (Photo by Reuters)The
Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) and the
Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Syrian Arab
Republic are both investigating the Idlib attack.
Muallem said
Syria would provide the OPCW and the UN with “intelligence on the
transfer of chemical substances from Iraq into Syria, or from Turkey
into Syria.”
He said Damascus needs assurances that any
fact-finding mission into the Idlib attack would not be politicized,
adding that his country’s past experience with international inquiries
had not been "encouraging."
Any investigative mission should be far from the sphere of Turkish influence, the Syrian foreign minister pointed out. Putin dismisses accusations against Syria as unfounded
Russian
President Vladimir Putin dismissed as "unfounded” accusations leveled
against the government of Syria over the "incident with chemical
weapons."
He made the remarks in a phone call with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Thursday, the Kremlin said in a statement.
"There
was an exchange of opinions over the incident with chemical weapons
that took place in the Syrian province of Idlib on April 4," the
statement noted, adding, "Putin in particular underlined the
unacceptability of making unfounded accusations against anyone before a
thorough and impartial international investigation is carried out."
Washington has no objective data on Idlib incident: Kremlin
Separately
on Thursday, Kremlin spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, said Washington's
allegations that Syrian forces were behind the deadly Idlib attack were
not based on "objective" information.
"No one could
have any realistic, verified information. Any data that the American
side or our colleagues in other countries could have cannot be based on
objective materials or evidence," Peskov said.
He
further denounced the incident as “a monstrous crime” and warned against
rushing to blame Syrian President Bashar al-Assad for the assault.
“We
consider a much more measured approach necessary and do not think it is
possible to surrender oneself to hasty conclusions about what happened
in Syria in the Idlib Province," the Russian official said.
Since
March 2011, Syria has been gripped by militancy it blames on some
Western states and their regional allies. Russia has been assisting the
Syrian army in its counter-terrorism operations.
