DAMASCUS (Dispatches) – Syrian Foreign Minister Faisal Mekdad has lashed out at the United States over its hostile policies against the war-torn country, saying that Washington and its European allies are reusing the same flimsy pretexts they used for the 2003 invasion of Iraq against his country.
The Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons claimed in a report late last month that investigators had “reasonable grounds to believe” the Syrian air force had dropped two cylinders of chlorine gas on the town of Douma back in 2018.
Syria dismissed the statement, saying the OPCW has been biased towards “Western positions.”
On April 14, 2018, the United States, Britain, and France carried out a string of airstrikes against Syria after they alleged the Syrian government had used chemical weapons on Douma, located about 10 kilometers northeast of the capital Damascus.
The alleged attack, strongly rejected by the Syrian government repeatedly, was reported by the so-called civil defense group White Helmets, which published videos showing them purportedly treating survivors.
The Western media and governments have on numerous occasions accused the Syrian government of using chemical weapons against its own citizens in the war against terrorists.
This is while Syria surrendered its stockpile of chemical weapons in 2014 to a joint mission led by the United States and the OPCW, which oversaw the destruction of the weaponry. It has also consistently denied using chemical weapons.
On Sunday, Mekdad called on the international community to learn from the past, and do not allow the United States and its European allies – particularly France, Britain and Germany – to re-invent their flimsy pretexts in order to justify interference in the internal affairs of other countries, and undermine their security, stability and prosperity.
Meanwhile, Russian State Duma (parliament) Speaker Vyacheslav Volodin has said the United Nations should launch an investigation into Washington’s crimes against humanity.
Volodin on Sunday blasted the infamous February 5, 2003 speech by then-U.S. secretary of state Colin Powell at the UN Security Council, during which he lied to the world about non-existent weapons of mass destruction in Iraq to prepare the ground for the invasion of the country, RT reported.
Volodin called the United States an “empire of lies.”
Writing on the 20th anniversary of Powell’s speech at the United Nations Security Council, Volodin said that February 5 marks “one of the biggest deceptions of the global community by the United States.”
He recalled that during the landmark Security Council meeting Powell “accused Iraq of producing weapons of mass destruction, providing a vial with ‘white powder’ as proof.”
During the speech, Powell said the vial could be used to store anthrax. The UN did not approve of the Iraq invasion. The U.S. however still invaded the country.
“Half a million civilians fell victims, the president was executed, the country was gone,” Volodin wrote.