‘White Helmets Still in Jordan, Active in Syria Provocations’

Date: 12 January 2019 - 21:50

News ID: ۶۱۹۶۱

MOSCOW (Dispatches) – Russia has warned that members of the White Helmets volunteer organization are still in Jordan after their withdrawal from Syria as their Western sponsors are reluctant to resettle the so-called aid workers.
The White Helmets had been promised shelter in European countries, but "the matter has not been resolved so far," Russia's Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova told a media briefing.
"Clearly, the West is not ready to welcome those who were involved in serious crimes," she added.
The White Helmets claims to be a humanitarian NGO, but it has been accused of working with anti-Damascus terrorists and staging false-flag chemical weapons attacks in Syria.
Syrian President Bashar al-Assad described the White Helmets as "a branch of al-Qaeda and al-Nusra" terrorist outfits and a "PR stunt” by the U.S., the UK and France.
Western countries decided last year to rescue White Helmets members amid stepped-up territorial gains made by the Syrian army against terrorists.
Last July, hundreds of White Helmets volunteers and their family members were evacuated from Syria to Israel and then to Jordan, to be resettled later in the UK, Canada, and Germany.
Elsewhere in her remarks, Zakharova said that a group of White Helmets still remains in Jordan.
"They are actively participating in provocations staged in Syria, and they also cooperated with terrorists," she noted.
The White Helmets was founded in Turkey in 2013 by former British MI5 officer James Le Mesurier.
Since its establishment, the group has received at least $55 million from the British Foreign Office, $23 million or more from the U.S. Office of Transition Initiatives and untold millions from Qatar.