MOSCOW, July 24. /TASS/. The White Helmets nongovernmental organization circulated information fakes in Syria, Maria Zakharova, the Russian Foreign Ministry’s official spokesperson told Rossiya’24 news channel on Monday.
"I understand perfectly well why the Syrians - officials and rank-and-file people likewise - dismiss the White Helmets and everyone associated with them as criminals," she said.
"These people who called themselves aid workers engaged in overtly provocative criminal activities - something that has been fully proven," Zakharova said. "Russia published facts several times each month that exposed the White Helmets’ real actions. Their scope included the provocations with the use of chemical weapons and disinformation."
Israeli Foreign Ministry’s official spokesman Emmanuel Nahshon said on Sunday Israel had evacuated the activists of the White Helmets and members of their families from Syria at a request from the US, Canada and a number of Western countries.
Israeli army radio Galei Tzahal said some 800 people had been taken to Jordan from the southern areas of Syria in the course of the operation, as the Syrian government troops were rounding up the antiterrorist operation there.
Government officials in Damascus said in this connection the White Helmets had links to Jabhat al-Nusra terrorist grouping and were acting in its interests. The US started sponsoring the NGO in 2013 and it has granted more than $ 33 million to the organization by now.
The Jordanian Foreign Ministry said the country had let the White Helmets’ activists into its territory out of humanitarian considerations and at the UN request. They are expected to move on to the UK, Germany and Canada.