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US using chemical attacks as pretext for military presence in Syria: Analyst

Thursday, 15 February 2018 7:57 AM [ Last Update: Thursday, 15 February 2018 7:57 AM ]

International diplomats attend a meeting to push for sanctions and criminal charges against the perpetrators of chemical attacks in Syria, at the Foreign Affairs ministry in Paris on January 23, 2018. (Photo by AFP)

An analyst believes the United States is using the issue of chemical attacks in Syria as an excuse to continue its military presence in the war-torn Arab country.

“The United States policy is regime change in Syria and it has used terrorists to carry out this policy. They say ISIS (Daesh) was defeated in Syria so what role does the United States have to play there anymore? The United States never has had a right to be in Syria, they were not invited into Syria, it is a sovereign nation and they have no right to be attacking Syrian forces or anybody else in that country,” Joe Lombardo, member of the United National Antiwar Coalition, told Press TV in an interview Thursday.

Since the beginning of the conflict in Syria in early 2011, the Western governments have on several occasions accused Syria of using chemical weapons against militants. Damascus has denied the allegations, saying they are meant to pile more pressure on the government forces and delay their success in the fight against terrorists.

The Syrian government surrendered its stockpiles of chemical weapons in 2014 to a joint mission led by the UN and the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), which oversaw the destruction of the weaponry.