Syria has dismissed "fabricated" claims about the use of chemical weapons by government troops in its western coastal province of Latakia.
The Syrian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Expatriates said such allegations will not affect the fight against terror.
“All this media hype will have no effect on Syria’s anti-terrorism operations. The Syrian government reiterates that such claims are part of a systematic campaign of lies to implicate Syrian army in using chemical warfare,” Syria’s official news agency cited an unnamed source at the ministry as saying on Saturday.
“This is nothing but a desperate attempt by some Western states and their mater, the United States, to ease pressure on the crimes of terrorists in Idlib. It is an obviously pathetic attempt to delay the advance of Syrian military forces.”
On Tuesday, the US Department of State claimed that it had seen signs that Syrian government troops may have used chemical weapons laced with chlorine near the village of Kabana, which lies in an area of the Jabal al-Akrad region, on May 19.
The United States has warned it would respond to any possible chemical weapons attack by Syrian government forces with retaliatory strikes, stressing that the attacks would be stronger than those conducted by American, British and French forces last year.
On April 14, 2018, the US, Britain and France carried out a string of airstrikes against Syria over a suspected chemical weapons attack on the city of Douma, located about 10 kilometers northeast of the capital Damascus.
Washington and its allies blamed Damascus for the Douma attack, an allegation rejected by the Syrian government.
Western governments and their allies have never stopped pointing the finger at Damascus whenever an apparent chemical attack takes place.
Syria surrendered its stockpile of chemical weapons in 2014 to a joint mission led by the United States and the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), which oversaw the destruction of the weaponry. It has also consistently denied using chemical weapons.
Terrorists readying for chemical attacks in Hama, Idlib
Meanwhile, local sources have reported that foreign-sponsored Takfiri terrorists in Syria’s west-central province of Hama as well as the northwestern province of Idlib are preparing false-flag attacks to frame government troops and invent pretexts for possible foreign acts of aggression on the country.
The sources, requesting not to be named, said members of the Jabhat Fateh al-Sham Takfiri terror outfit, formerly known as al-Nusra Front, have held numerous meetings with militants from the so-called Turkistan Islamic Party, Jaysh al-Izza (the Union of Glory) and Western-backed White Helmets, who have been accused of cooperating with Takfiri militants and staging false-flag gas attacks, in order to use chlorine gas in their attacks.
The source added that terrorists of Belgian, French and Moroccan nationalities are instructing the Takfiris on the use of chemical of the toxic gas.