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Conflict in Syria

US withholds info on Syria chemical attack because it proves nothing — Russian military

Anonymous US government sources earlier said that the US intelligence allegedly intercepted conversations in which Syrian military officials discuss preparations for using sarin

Defense Ministry spokesman Maj. Gen. Igor Konashenkov Sergei Bobylyov/Russian Defense Ministry's press service/TASS

Defense Ministry spokesman Maj. Gen. Igor Konashenkov

© Sergei Bobylyov/Russian Defense Ministry's press service/TASS

MOSCOW, April 14. /TASS/. The fact that Washington chose not to disclose its information on the alleged chemical attack in Syria proves that the United States has no convincing evidence, a spokesman for the Russian Defense Ministry said on Friday.

"If the US special services choose to further keep secret their alleged evidence of crimes against humanity, there can only be one possible explanation for it - they simply have no irrefutable evidence," Maj. Gen. Igor Konashenkov said, commenting on media reports about the alleged records of communications between the Syrian military intercepted by the US intelligence.

Read also

Syria ready to provide OPCW investigators access to Shayrat airbase — UN envoy

"In line with a long-standing tradition, the Pentagon always mentions some ‘irrefutable’ evidence of atrocities in an attempt to justify every US violation of the international law and particularly US military aggression against sovereign states. And the more contrived this pseudo-evidence is, the more secretive they are," the spokesman added.

CNN reported Wednesday, citing unnamed US government sources, that the country’s intelligence allegedly intercepted conversations in which Syrian military officials discuss preparations for using nerve agent sarin in the province of Idlib. The sources blamed forces loyal to Syrian President Bashar Asad for the alleged chemical attack in the province on April 4.

Russia’s Defense Ministry said that on April 4, the Syrian air force had delivered an airstrike on militant-held eastern outskirts of the town of Khan Shaykhun to destroy facilities that illegal armed groups used to produce chemical-laden munitions.

Washington accused Damascus of using chemical weapons against civilians. On April 7, US President Donald Trump ordered to strike the Shayrat military air base in the Homs Governorate with 59 Tomahawk cruise missiles in retaliation for the alleged attack.

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