MOSCOW, August 16. /TASS/. After western-made chemical weapons have been found on Syria’s territory, Damascus has the right to apply to the United Nations, Chairman of the Russian State Duma (lower house of parliament) Committee for Foreign Affairs Leonid Slutsky said.
Earlier on Wednesday, Syrian Deputy Foreign Minister Faisal Mekdad announced at a press conference that chemical weapons from the United Kingdom and United States had been found in areas liberated from terrorists. He particularly mentioned hand grenades and munitions for grenade launchers filled with the CN and CS gas. According to Mekdad, these chemical weapons were produced by the US Federal Laboratories and NonLethal Technologies, as well as by UK’s Cherming Defence.
"Now that western-made chemical weapons have been found in areas liberated from terrorists, Syria has every reason and right to apply to the United Nations," Slutsky told reporters. According to him, "the information that the Syrian Foreign Ministry has made public, once again exposes the hypocrisy of the US-led coalition and proves that the main goal of their operation is to overthrow Bashar al-Assad’s regime." "Our ‘strategic friends’ are ready to do whatever it takes to achieve this goal - from making staged videos and spreading fake news to actually providing support to terrorists," the senior Russian lawmaker said.
In Slutsky’s opinion, "it has become even more evident that Idlib, where the alleged chemical weapons attack took place, was the first link in a long chain of provocations aimed at justifying the Tomahawk missile attack, which, in fact, violated international law and Syria’s sovereignty." "Another thing is clear: only Russia, who has been effectively countering international terrorism in Syria, prevents the West from using full force to achieve its objectives, which are far from being noble," Slutsky said. "We will continue to support the Syrian people in their fight against terrorists," he concluded.