No motive for Assad to carry out chemical attack: Senator

US Virginia State Senator Richard Black tells Press TV that there is no motive for Syrian President Bashr al-Assad to order a chemical attack and draw global ire at a time when his forces have the upper hand on the battlefield against militant groups.

“I think there is no motive for him (Assad) doing this and I think it makes it highly incredible that this was actually carried out by Syria,” Black said in a Friday interview with Press TV. “I give the probabilities of the Syrians doing this a zero-percent probability.”

The senator went to enumerate the reasons why the Syrian head of state could not have been behind an alleged chemical attack, which killed over 80 people in Khan Sheikhun town of Syria’s Idlib Province.

“First of all, he (Assad) knew with certainty that if he used sarin gas, he would incur the wrath of the entire world. Secondly, he is winning the war on every front and so there is no incentive to do something desperate. Third, if he were to feel that somehow he had to use sarin gas … he wouldn’t waste it on simply killing some people walking down the street,” he added.

Anti-Damascus militants accused the government forces of having a hand in the Khan Sheikhun attack, with the US exploiting the unproven claims to launch an unprecedented missile attack against a Syrian army base in Homs Province.

US President Donald Trump also claimed the sarin nerve agent had been used in the Idlib attack.

This is while Damascus had roundly rejected any role in the tragedy. Russia and Syria say the army’s Idlib airstrike had targeted a depot where terrorists stored chemical weapons.

Trump’s Syria strike ‘emotional’

Touching on Friday’s US missile strike against an airbase in Syria, Black said the assault was emotional and illogical, noting that it was likely coordinated with the Takfiri Daesh terrorist group.

“Foreign policy must be driven by logic and by intellect. And, I am very worried that we are moving away from logic and intellect and simply falling back in the same pattern of carrying out attacks on Middle Eastern countries just on a whim,” he added.

Early on Friday, US warships in the eastern Mediterranean launched a barrage of 59 Tomahawk missiles against Shayrat Airfield in Syria’s Homs Province, which Washington alleged was the origin of the suspected chemical attack in Idlib.

Damascus denounced the US assault as a “blatant aggression” that killed up to 15 people, including civilians, and caused “significant material damage.”

Washington has not provided any evidence to support the accusations, prompting criticisms from many countries and international intuitions for choosing to take unilateral military action hastily and without proof.

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