Terrorists in Syria Preparing for Gas Attack to Blame Syrian Army for Using Chemical Weapons: Al-Jaafari
NEW YORK, (ST)- Terrorist groups in Syria are preparing for a wide chlorine gas attack to blame the Syrian Arab army for using chemical weapons against civilians, Syria’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations Bashar al-Jaafari has stressed, pointing out that these groups have received orders from western and Turkish intelligence to fabricate a chemical attack before March 13, the date for holding the 87th session of the Executive council of the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW).
Three Turkish trucks carrying Chlorine entered into Idleb
Al-Jaafari, who made the remarks during a Security Council session on Syria on Wednesday, said that “in the morning of February 20, I received information saying that three Turkish trucks carrying chlorine entered into Idleb across Bab al-Hawa border crossing. Two of them stopped in Qalb Louzeh village to be unloaded by terrorists in the village’s school that was turned into a store for chemical materials. The third drove towards al-Habet village in Idleb northern countryside and it exists now at a headquarter that belongs to “Hayat Tahrir al-Sham” armed group, which is a Turkish agent in the northeastern side of al-Habet village, where a large number of terrorists are unloading the chlorine shipment there.”
Terrorists are using civilians in Eastern Ghouta as human shields
Al-Jaafari went on to say that the terrorist groups are using civilians as human shields in Eatsen Ghouta, criticizing those who prepared the report over using the term “besieged areas” and over their deliberate disregarding of the fact that the locals of Ghouta are besieged from inside by the different terrorist groups operating in this area.
The reason behind recent escalation in Ghouta is the terrorist groups’ acts of shelling residential neighborhoods and military points in Damascus with more than 2180 rockets and mortar shells that caused the martyrdom of 66 civilians and the wounding of 474 others, al-Jaafari said, adding that these provocative acts necessitated a response by the government forces against these attacks in implementation of their constitutional duty to guarantee the safety and security of the citizens.
He regretted the report authors’ ignoring of the suffering of thousands of kidnapped people, including women, children and elderly, who have been held by terrorists for years in the prisons of Eastern Ghouta and other terrorist-controlled areas and who have been exposed to the worst types of torture.
Nobody is more interested in the safety of the Syrian citizens than the Syrian government
“Nobody is more interested in the safety of the Syrian citizens than the Syrian government which is adopting every necessary measure to protect them from terrorists,” added al-Jaafari, noting that the countries supporting terrorism continue to supply terrorist organizations in Ghouta with weapons and ammunition.
Al-Jaafari clarified that since its foundation, the United Nations has failed to implement the rules of the UN Charter and the principles of the International Law, stressing the Syrian government’s commitment to the International Humanitarian Law’s principles as well as to the Syrian constitution and the national laws that provide for protecting the safety of the Syrian citizens.
The Syrian diplomat made it clear that the goal of adopting the Security Council Resolution No. 2401 was not to protect civilians, but to use the Council to hinder the progress of the Syrian Arab army in the fight against terrorism.
Elsewhere in his statement, al-Jaafari criticized the silence of the report’s authors over the disastrous impacts of the US-led coalition’s crimes against Syrian civilians and forces fighting Daesh, referring to the latest massacres committed by the coalition in Deir Ezzour eastern countryside that claimed the lives of scores of civilians including children and women.
He said that “Syria renews its call for immediately dissolving the illegal aggressive US-led coalition.”
Hamda Mustafa