Recently, the Russian Ministry of Defense posted a statement on their Facebook page about comments made by the US State Department. In the interest of bringing facts to this fiction fight, we will debunk the statement as applies to Syria.
statement
The Russian Defence Ministry comments on the statement of the US State Department representative that Russia allegedly “uses every opportunity to protect the Assad regime that continues using chemical weapons”. One should remind representatives of the current US administration that it was on the initiative of the President of the Russian Federation that all the existing chemical weapons arsenal from the Syrian authorities had been removed from the country in 2014 for further destruction. The process of seizing, exporting and transporting more than 1,200 tons of toxic substances passed not only under the complete control of the UN, but also with the direct participation of American specialists at all its stages.
OPCW team members in Syria
As we have previously documented, and as is well-known, Syria’s government either hid quantities of certain chemical weapons, or simply retained the ability to produce more chemical weapons. As sarin has a rather long shelf-life, it is not outside the realm of possibility that the regime hid some chemical weapons in remote locations, only to move them back as needed. In fact, as detailed below, later reports conclusively decided that there were more chemical weapons in Syria, and that they were used by the Assad regime.
statement
Moreover, in January 2016, after the disposal of the last 75 cylinders of hydrogen fluoride in the US by the American company Veolia, the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) officially confirmed the complete destruction of Syrian chemical weapons. All ongoing attempts by the US to accuse the Syrian authorities of using poisonous substances in the course of military operations against the so-called “opposition” are based on rumors of social networks, militant testimonies and have never been confirmed by facts.
OPCW team in Syria
While it is true that the OPCW certified Syria’s chemical weapons were destroyed, it is also true that the OPCW later, following the events at Khan Sheikhoun on April 4, 2017, announced the first of two critical findings:
opcw statement on 17 april 2017[1]
The bio-medical samples collected from three victims during their autopsy were analysed at two OPCW designated laboratories. The results of the analysis indicate that the victims were exposed to Sarin or a Sarin-like substance. Bio-medical samples from seven individuals undergoing treatment at hospitals were also analysed in two other OPCW designated laboratories. Similarly, the results of these analyses indicate exposure to Sarin or a Sarin-like substance.
Director-General Üzümcü stated clearly: “The results of these analyses from four OPCW designated laboratories indicate exposure to Sarin or a Sarin-like substance. While further details of the laboratory analyses will follow, the analytical results already obtained are incontrovertible.”
Not only did the OPCW, as stated above, confirm the use of sarin specifically at Khan Sheikhoun, they also later made the following finding public:
OPCW-UN JIM 7th Report
Based on the foregoing, the Leadership Panel is confident that the Syrian Arab Republic is responsible for the release of sarin at Khan Shaykhun on 4 April 2017. The findings of the Leadership Panel regarding the evidence in this case are based on the information set forth in detail in annex II.
Shayrat Airbase in Syria, home of the aircraft responsible for the Khan Sheikhoun attack
The very organization whose name the Russian Ministry of Defense has invoked later went on to implicate Russia’s Syrian ally Bashar al-Assad in the use of the chemical weapons they also reported existed again in Syria. So the statement made by Russia’s Minister of Defense falls flat, proven utterly false by information that has been released in the time since Khan Shiekhoun.
statement
This fully applies to the US-backed results of the so-called “remote investigation” of events in Khan-Sheikhun, Syria, the conclusions of which are based on data from social networks, mutually contradictory “evidence” from questionable sources and violating the elementary laws of physics. At the same time, the US administration at the best does not show any interest, and often simply “ignores” the objective facts of the use of chemical warfare agents by terrorists in the course of military operations against the SAA and the civilian population.
The previously-linked OPCW-JIM statement addresses this point as well, but in the interest of truly debunking this statement, we recommend these reports. We also highly recommend looking into the open-source investigations conducted by Bellingcat regarding this event.
[1] OPCW Director-General Shares Incontrovertible Laboratory Results Concluding Exposure to Sarin
