TEHRAN (Dispatches) – An Iranian diplomat has welcomed Virginia state Senator Richard Black’s confirmation of the British intelligence agency’s plans to launch a chemical attack in Syria and blame it on Damascus.
"U.S. senator: Britain's MI6 is planning a fake chemical weapons attack on Syria. This proves what has been said many times in the OPCW’s meetings,” Iran’s Ambassador to the Netherlands Alireza Jahangiri tweeted on Thursday.
"If the world takes such statements seriously, we will not see any disasters like the Iraq war,” he added.
Black told Beirut-based Al Mayadeen television channel last week that Britain’s MI6 intelligence service was planning a chemical weapons attack on the Syrian people, which it would then blame on President Bashar al-Assad.
"Around four weeks ago, we knew that British intelligence was working towards a chemical attack in order to blame the Syrian government, to hold Syria responsible,” British daily the Independent quoted Black as saying.
Black said the British were planning to either direct terrorists or stage a phoney attack, with actors posing as victims.
Black also said some chemical attacks previously reported to have occurred in Syria were British fakes, pulled off with help from so-called volunteer first responders known as "White Helmets”.
"From what I can tell, they have been planning a fake attack, not a genuine one, but one where they actually move people out of a town and they have trained people to portray victims of a gas attack,” Black said in an interview with The Washington Post. "And the plan is to use the White Helmets who have always been involved in these notorious deceptions, to portray an attack.”
According to the Russian Center for Syrian Reconciliation, several Middle East TV channels and a U.S. news channel have been sent to Jisr al-Shughur in Syria’s Idlib province to produce a footage needed for the provocation.
It said the intelligence came from local residents of Jisr al-Shughur.
"All the footage of the staged provocation in Jisr al-Shughur is to be delivered to the newsrooms of TV channels, which are to broadcast it after its publication on social media,” the center said.
According to the reporter, a terrorist group had been provided with two canisters of a "chlorine-based chemical” for the false-flag operation.