Syria didn’t conduct gas attack, had no reason to: Analyst

A recent incident in the Syrian town of Khan Shaykun in Syria’s northwestern Idlib Province saw the death of at least 86 people, who displayed signs of poisoning by chemical agents. The United States and its allies claimed the Syrian government had employed a chemical weapon against the town, while Damascus and Russia said a chemical weapons depot held and run by anti-Damascus militants had been hit in a Syrian government conventional airstrike, causing the leak of the chemicals and the deaths.

To discuss the issue, Press TV interviewed Richard Becker, with the ANSWER Coalition, and George Lambrakis, a former US diplomat, on Thursday.

Becker dismissed the allegation that Syrian government forces had conducted a chemical attack, saying that it made no sense to carry out such a strike at a time when political talks were to be held in Brussels to discuss the future of Syria.

“Why would the government of Syria decide to carry out a chemical weapons attack on a very remote area?” he asked. “What was the motivation just as there is about to be talks taking place in Brussels?”

He referred to comments by US officials earlier that the political reality of Bashar al-Assad being the president of Syria had to be accepted and that the US’s priority would no more be his removal. Becker then said carrying out a chemical attack just after such posturing by US officials would make no sense for the Syrian government.

“There is also evidence that has been presented by the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons that opposition groups in Syria have access to chemical weapons and how they got them is a very good question,” Becker said.

Becker said the US was attempting to use the situation as a prelude to further pressures on the Syrian government.

US authorities do not know what really happened on the ground in Syria, he said, “but they immediately assigned blame for the bomb attack on both the Syrian Arab Army and the Syrian government.”

The blame game that the Americans have instigated against Syria “shows what they want rather than what they know.”

What the American officials were saying was “very ominous” and “we have to really question whether or not we are on the brink of an expanded war against the Syrian government, seeking regime change in Syria at a time when the Syrian government along with its allies have been making progress toward winning the war,” he said.

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• Terrorists stockpile chemical weapons in urban areas: Muallem
• Syrian army, Foreign Ministry deny role in Idlib 'chemical' attack

George Lambrakis, for his part, said Syrian government forces had carried out a chemical attack.

Lambrakis claimed, “There is little doubt that this was carried out by the forces that have been carrying out a series of chlorine and other mixed chemical attacks, which is the government.”

While the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) and the Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Syrian Arab Republic are both investigating the Idlib attack, certain Western powers are rushing to blame Damascus as the perpetrator of such an attack.

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