THE SYRIAN government absolutely rejects the allegations ‘that the army used in the past or uses now or will use in the future any chemical weapons and we condemn using such weapons,’ Deputy Prime Minister Walid al-Moallem said yesterday.
Addressing journalists in a press conference on Thursday he said the question which must be asked is ‘of the timing of the unfair campaign launched against Syria as over the past few weeks,’ adding that terrorists have carried out a number of attacks in Jobar and the northern countryside of Hama.
Al-Moallem said: ‘You were briefed on the statement of the Army and Armed Forces General Command and the statement made by the Foreign and Expatriates Ministry which was sent to the UN Security Council and the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) and all of these statements included the absolute rejection that the army used in the past or uses now or will use in the future any chemical weapons and we condemn using such weapons.’
Al-Moallem added: ‘Terrorists launched attacks in Jobar and Hama countryside before the fifth round of Geneva, and the Riyadh delegation (Saudi-backed opposition) had only one demand in Geneva which is to come into power and when they failed in these attempts they came up with the lie of using chemical weapons by the army in Khan Sheikhoun.’
He said that declaring this campaign was at 6:00am when the first airstrike carried out by the Syrian army was at 11:00am shows this to be a lie. He said that the air strike was on an ammunition store of Jabhat al-Nusra terrorists which had chemical weapons stored inside it.
Al-Moallem added: ‘If there were an airstrike that used chemical weapons, it would have dug a hole with a diameter of 1km.’ He stressed that the ISIS and Jabhat al-Nusra terrorist organisations have continued to store chemical weapons in the cities and in inhabited areas.
Al-Moallem said: ‘This chorus which started in the international arena consisted of the states which are well-known for conspiring against Syria.’ He affirmed again that the Syrian Arab Army has never and will not use such type of weapons even ‘against the terrorists who target our people.’