US turned blind eye to Daesh use of chemical arms: Activist

Press TV has interviewed Sabah Jawad, director of Iraqi Democrats against Occupation in London, to discuss the remarks made by the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) Director John Brennan, saying the Daesh (ISIL) terrorist group has used chemical weapons in its attacks and is capable of making small quantities of chlorine and mustard gas.

The following is a rough transcription of the interview.

Press TV: This declaration by Brennan about the use of chemical weapons by the hands of Daesh, this is not a new revelation; it is something that Iraqi officials as well as Syrian official have spoken about?

Jawad: Yes, this is precisely the case but it is still an important admission by the Americans especially from a senior director of the CIA that actually the terrorist groups used chemical weapon before. However, it does not say where and when the terrorist groups used such weapons but we all know [that] for example there are many reports of the usage of such weapons in Iraq and in Syria as well and even Afghanistan beforehand.

They have a capability of producing such a weapon and also they have no compulsion of using such weapon against the civilians and the military targets as well. We know of one particular case in Syria where the weapons [were] used and the United States as usual blamed the Syrian regime while all the facts points to the terrorist groups because the weapons which carried the chemical weapons could only be fired from an area controlled by the terrorist groups.

In Iraq we have many instances and reports about the use of such weapons dating back to 2007 and 2008 in Ramadi and in other parts of Iraq and the recent ones [were] exposed by the Kurdish authorities in Kurdistan against the Peshmerga forces in Iraq.

However, the United States always turned a blind eye to such reports. In fact if we go back to 1988 when the Iraqi regime used chemical weapons which killed between 5,000 and 10,000 people in Halabja in northern Iraq, you see the American then blamed the Iranian rather than the regime of Saddam Hussein.    

Press TV: Now Brennan has said that the supply lines of these terrorists should be cut off so that these chemical materials cannot be transferred or used. Is the US seriously going to pursue that?  

Jawad: From the record of the United States and their allies in the area, they say one thing and actually in practice they do nothing. All these countries like Qatar, Saudi Arabia and Turkey, which is known link with the terrorist groups and the … bombers and so on, have failed actually to control the flow of materials and the fighters, Jihadis, to Iraq and Syria as well.

So you have to take with a pinch of salt actually the claim that these countries are doing enough to stop the supply of such weapons and facilitate the terrorist groups from carrying out such atrocities.

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