TEHRAN (Dispatches) – Iran’s Foreign Minister Muhammad Javad Zarif blasted a tripartite airstrike on Syria during a Sunday phone conversation with his British counterpart Boris Johnson whose country participated in the attack.
Zarif denounced the "arbitrary, illegal and unilateral" move by the United States, Britain and France to attack Syria, saying no country has the right to carry out punitive measures against other countries without observing international laws.
Zarif reiterated Iran’s opposition to the use of chemical weapons, but also blasted the West's dual approach to former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein’s chemical attacks against Iran during the 1980s.
The attacks against Syria under the pretext of chemical weapons came exactly at a time when the Syrian army has the upper hand against terrorists and has pushed them to the brink of defeat, Zarif said.
Iran has repeatedly announced that armed terrorist groups are in possession of chemical weapons in Syria, he said.
The Russian military said on Saturday the alleged chemical attack was staged and directed by Britain. White Helmet operators claimed that the attack by the Syrian government killed over 40 people in the town of Douma.
Russian Defense Ministry spokesman Maj. Gen. Igor Konashenkov released statements by medics from Douma's hospital who said a group of people toting video cameras entered the hospital, shouting that its patients were struck with chemical weapons and causing panic. The medics said none of the patients were hurt by chemicals.
Konashenkov said the military had "proof that testifies to the direct participation of Britain in the organizing of this provocation in Eastern Ghouta."  
He said that Britain had told the White Helmets, who act as first responders in terrorist-held areas, to fake the suspected chemical attack in the town of Douma.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Moscow had "irrefutable" evidence that the alleged chemical weapons attack in Syria was staged with the help of a foreign secret service.
"We have irrefutable evidence that this was another staged event, and that the secret services of a certain state that is now at the forefront of a Russophobic campaign was involved in this staged event," he said during a press conference.