MOSCOW, June 15. /TASS/. Russian Foreign Ministry’s Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova hopes that CNN reporters will manage to refute their report on three-year-old Omran Daqneesh who was allegedly injured during the Russian Aerospace Forces’ operation, she said during a briefing answering TASS’ question.
"Maybe CNN reporters will address, together or personally, their chief international correspondent, a person who claims to be an expert in international relations, Christiane Amanpour, and suggest that, as long as she came to Moscow, showed the boy’s photo to the Russian Foreign Ministry, told his story and made corresponding conclusions on the current situation in Syria, maybe CNN, especially regarding the current working environment, will find enough strength to make some report that will refute their own story," the diplomat noted.
Zakharova also stressed that Amanpour’s story is the clear evidence of attempts to influence public opinion. "This interview was taken right before the US election, and as long as the CNN channel believes that Russia somehow interfered with this process - with not a single fact or compelling evidence present - they could analyze their own story, their own materials in order to find any evidence of an influence over the public opinion before the election," she said. "A story was taken, a subject was taken that touched everyone’s feelings, because it was about a boy, a small child, who was injured (reporters said he was killed) in Syria. This is an example of a genuine manipulation of the public opinion before the election. The blame was put on Russia, both directly and indirectly, which gave the impression that Russia’s Aerospace Forces’ activity in Syria was anauthorized and led to such victims."
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"Now, thanks to the efforts of responsible reporters who really do their job, the truth emerged," Zakharova concluded.
Earlier, the father of the Syrian boy, Omran, whose photo was spread by western mass media as a "symbol of Aleppo’s sufferings" explained during the Moscow-Geneva-Aleppo video conference that the members of the White Helmets, a pseudo-humanitarian organization, arrived at the scene of the explosion before the ambulance and then used the photo shoot of his son to achieve their own goals. The boy himself was not seriously injured and is in good state now.