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Syria denies possession of chemical weapons

Wednesday, 28 February 2018 2:19 PM [ Last Update: Wednesday, 28 February 2018 2:21 PM ]

United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres (L) speaks during the Conference on Disarmament at the UN building in Geneva, Switzerland, February 26, 2018. (AFP)

Syria has denied allegations of possessing chemical weapons, stressing that the foreign-backed Takfiri terrorist groups operating in the country, including al-Nusra and Daesh, have obtained some stocks.

Syria's Ambassador to the United Nations in Geneva Hussam Edin Aala on Wednesday refuted the "false allegations" made by some countries against his government, saying, "Syria cannot possibly be using chemical weapons because it very simply has none in its possession."

In his address to the UN-sponsored Conference on Disarmament in Geneva, Aala also denounced the use of chemical weapons anywhere.

The remarks come a day after the UK said it would start “seriously” considering joining US military strikes against the Arab country if such claims were true.

On Monday, the so-called Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which is sympathetic to anti-Damascus militants, said 14 civilians had suffered breathing difficulties after a Syrian warplane struck a village in Eastern Ghouta region in the suburbs of the Syrian capital, Damascus.

The report came just after Russia warned that militants were planning a gas attack there to blame it on the Syrian government.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, however, dismissed the report as “bogus stories,” stressing that government forces had attacked foreign-sponsored Takfiri terrorists there.

The photo, taken on February 28, 2018, shows portraits of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad (R) and Russian President Vladimir Putin hanging outside a post at Wafideen checkpoint on the outskirts of Damascus, neighboring the militant-held region of Eastern Ghouta. (Photo by AFP)

Syria surrendered its stockpiles of chemical weapons in 2014 to a joint mission led by the US and the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), which oversaw the destruction of the weaponry. Damascus has consistently denied using chemical weapons over the past years of conflict in the country.

Western governments and their allies, however, have never stopped pointing the finger at Damascus whenever an apparent chemical attack takes place.

In April 2017, a suspected sarin gas attack hit the town of Khan Shaykhun in the northwestern province of Idlib, killing at least 80 people. Accusing Damascus, the US then launched several dozen Tomahawk cruise missiles at a Syrian air base, taking the lives of about 20 people including both Syrian soldiers and civilians.

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