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Father of boy in White Helmets footage to testify that ‘no chemical weapons used in Douma’

The White Helmets claim chemical weapons had been used in Douma on April 7

DOUMA /Eastern Ghouta, Syria/, April 19. /TASS/. The father of a Syrian teenage boy who can be seen in a video the White Helmets NGO presents as evidence government troops used chemical weapons is prepared to testify before any international organizations that Douma saw no chemical attack.

"My boy had no traces that might indicate he had been harmed by chemical weapons. He looked slightly frightened but healthy. My family and myself are prepared to testify at any place around the world, be it Geneva or New York, chemical weapons had not been used," the boy’s father Omar Diab told the media on Thursday.

His eleven-year-old boy earlier told the Rossiya-24 television channel that Jaysh al-Islam militants had given him some date fruit and pastries for participating in the faked video.

Earlier, Russia’s representative at the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), Alexander Shulgin, said Russian specialists who had probed into the alleged use of chemical weapons in Syria’s Douma to identify some people shown in the video as victims of a chemical attack. Russia is going to bring those who had participated in preparations for provocations in Syria to meet with OPCW inspectors.

The White Helmets claim chemical weapons had been used in Douma on April 7. The Russian Defense Ministry slammed the source as unreliable. The Russian center for the reconciliation of conflicting parties explored Douma on April 9 to find no traces that might indicate chemical weapons had been used there.

On April 14, the United States, Britain and France carried out a missile attack against Syria’s military and civilian infrastructures saying it was in retaliation for the use of chemical weapons by the Syrian government army.