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Russian diplomat says West continues to ‘turn a blind eye’ to chemical incidents in Syria

The Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman says "our colleagues continue to stick to double standards on the issues of the struggle against terrorism in Syria and Iraq"

MOSCOW, May 25. /TASS/. Some Western countries continue to cynically shut their eyes to numerous outrageous incidents with the use of chemical weapons in Syria, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said on Thursday.

The numerous instances of chemical weapons’ use by militants, which even in the opinion of Western media has become terrorists’ normal practice during their defense of Mosul expressly testifies to the scope of the problem of chemical terrorism in the Middle East, the Russian diplomat said.

"Meanwhile, Russia has been drawing attention for already three years but, to our deep regret, unsuccessfully to the incessant recurrences of chemical terrorism in Syria and Iraq," Zakharova said.

"We numerously urged partners at various international venues, first of all, in the UN Security Council and the OPCW [the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons] to pull efforts to counter chemical terrorism. However, all our efforts either do not find proper support of colleagues from Western countries or are openly blocked by them," the Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman said.

"Apparently, all this is taking place in favor of some ambitions, possibly, geopolitical ambitions," Zakharova said.

"Our colleagues continue to stick to double standards on the issues of the struggle against terrorism in Syria and Iraq," the Russian diplomat said.

"They are cynically shutting their eyes to numerous outrageous incidents with the use of chemical weapons by terrorist and extremist structures," she noted.

"In the desire to remove at any cost the regime existing in Syria, it is apparently more advantageous to groundlessly accuse the legitimately elected Syrian government of everything, the government that displayed its political will in 2013 in its voluntary move to give up its military chemical potential," the Russian diplomat said.

Such state of things plays into the hands of terrorists who continue with impunity to use everywhere not only chlorine and other toxic chemicals but also full-blown chemical warfare agents of their own production, the spokeswoman said.

"The number of incidents with the use of chemical substances will, unfortunately, only grow in this long-suffering country," Zakharova said.

"It is not difficult to guess who will be blamed for them: of course, the talk will be about the armed forces and the government of Syria," the Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman said.