Russian foreign ministry on Wednesday accused rebels of staging the massacre to trigger intervention and it remains likely that Russia would veto any UN Security resolution concerning military intervention in Syria.
The Syrian government, which blames rebel forces for the alleged attack, has warned against any military action against Damascus, saying such a move would set the Middle East ablaze. Meanwhile on Saturday, Syrian state media reported that rebels have used chemical weapons against regime forces in the Damascus suburb of Jobar, where soldiers discovered stockpiles of toxic poisoning antidotes.
Doctors Without Borders (MSF) has said that nearly 3,600 patients with neurotoxic symptoms were treated in three Damascus hospitals on the day a toxic gas attack was reported, while 355 patients were reportedly pronounced dead.
The international medical humanitarian organization said it received information from hospitals it has been supporting in Syria. At the same time, MSF director of operations, Dr. Bart Janssens said in a press-release published on the organization’s webpage that they are unable to “establish who is responsible for the attack”.
The revelation by MSF happened within a week of a UN investigative team entering the country to examine three different sites of alleged chemical weapons usage. It was also just hours after UN disarmament chief, Angela Kane, arrived in the Syrian capital of Damascus to apply pressure on the Syrian government to grant access to the site of the reported attack in the Damascus suburbs on Wednesday.
Moscow has commented that it was monitoring events surrounding the alleged attack. “We’re getting more new evidence that this criminal act was of a provocative nature,” Russian Foreign Ministry spokesman, Aleksandr Lukashevich, said in a statement on Friday.
“In particular, there are reports circulating on the Internet that the materials of the incident and accusations against government troops had been posted for several hours before the so-called attack. Thus, it was a pre-planned action,” he said.
Professor of International Law at Georgetown University, Daoud Khairallah, told RT that the US would not act without verifiable evidence.
“The US can’t take any action without verifiable evidence about who is the party who is responsible. If it turns out that it was the rebels that used this poisonous material, the US will be embarrassed because it will be the allies of US, the opposition the US has been supporting and claiming that these are people who are seeking democracy and rule of law in Syria.”
“The US would like to prove that it was the regime who has done this, but it has not been independently proved or verified and without independent verification I doubt that Obama will act. Obama did say that ‘we need to be sure who has used these weapons, evaluate the costs to the US both financially and morally, we need international approval.’”
Pushkov: Chemical weapons use in Syria serves ‘opposition fighters’
The Russian author and political analyst Vyacheslav Matuzov considered the armed opposition’s resort to the use of chemical weapons to hit Damascus suburbs a clear evidence of military and political fiasco.
In a phone call with the Syrian TV Saturday, Matuzov said the US stance is unclear, indicating that Russia’s satellite images revealed that the rockets were launched from opposition-held areas in an obvious provocation that the international community has to shoulder responsibilities about.
Matuzov blamed the countries which are backing the armed opposition, mainly Turkey, for the use of chemical weapons.
Matuzov ruled out the possibility of a military intervention in Syria, adding that the opposition’s ‘cheap conduct’ makes it imperative for a political solution to materialize so as to put an end to such activities.
The Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement few days ago that a homemade, chemically-laced rocket was fired on Damascus eastern suburbs from one of the gunmen’s sites.
- Vyacheslav Matuzov is a chairman of Russia’s Society of Friendship and Business Cooperation with Arabic Countries
Pushkov: Chemical weapons use in Syria serves ‘opposition fighters’
Chairman of the Russian Duma Committee on International Affairs, Alexei Pushkov said the use of chemical weapons in Syria serves the ‘opposition fighters’ as this will enable them to blame the Syrian government.
Pushkov said in a tweet on Saturday that ”the gunmen in Syria might have used chemical weapons deliberately to blame the Syrian authorities.”
”A chemical weapon discovered with the gunmen makes sense as it serves them to use it and blame the Syrian government,” Pushkov said.
The West declines to acknowledge that there is no logic to the accusations against the Syrian leadership, Pushkov pointed out.
”The West does not want to answer a significant question: Why would the Syrian leadership use chemical weapon? Is the Syrian leadership using it to give a pretext for foreign intervention or is it using it to dig its own grave?”, said Pushkov.
Russia Today, Syria News
