OPCW Report Fails to Provide Enough Evidence of What Happened in Douma - Scholar

An alleged chemical attack in Douma, Syria last April was carried out with chlorine. This is according to the documents published by the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons. Sputnik has discussed the report with Dr Taleb Ibrahim, a Syrian political analyst and deputy director of the Damascus Centre for Strategic Studies.

Sputnik: Doctor, the report points out that there are reasonable grounds to believe that chlorine was used at the site and Douma, in your opinion how conclusive does this sound?

Dr Taleb Ibrahim: I think the report is not clear enough and I don't think that this is a professional report because it said likely use of chlorine and it didn't confirm the usage of chlorine in Douma. And even if we talk about the report, which should be revisited by the OPCW, we must talk in a very clear and in a very correct way not to say what's likely used. We don't know who had done that from what we have seen in the report and, anyhow, everybody knows here in Syria, in Damascus that this is was a game.

It was only for staging an attack against Syria, and the White Helmets and other leaders of terrorist groups made that image to make the United States and western countries attack the Syrian Army. The Syrian Army was attacking that area and was about to eradicate terrorists and they made this game as we have seen.

READ MORE: Russian Envoy Suggests West Would Ignore Findings on Douma Chemical Attack

Sputnik: Of course the watchdog also abstained from identifying the culprit behind the attack, do you think this was anticipated?

Dr Taleb Ibrahim: As I told you previously that the report is not clear and didn't provide enough evidence about what had happened exactly in Douma. They are unable to say that this is a lie and this is a game so they don't say who has done that, there's no responsibility about the attacks because if we reach more and more details in the investigation it will indicate exactly that this was a game and this will cause a little fighting to the American position and European position in Syria.

Sputnik: We've just spoken about the White Helmets, of course, I want to ask you what's your personal view regarding the so-called evidence provided by the White Helmets. It was presented as proof of the Syrian government's culpability, because, of course, last month there was a BBC producer who spoke up and mentioned the staged character of the attack and the broadcaster then respond by saying it was just his personal claims. What's your opinion?

Dr Taleb Ibrahim: Yes, I've read Sputnik's report about the BBC reporter and I know the man. He's saying the truth, but the White Helmets, everybody knows that they are representing Western intelligence agencies like the MI6 and the CIA; and the White Helmets are lying and they're completing part of the image which we have seen about 15 years ago in the Security Council when the director of the CIA George Tenet and American Secretary of State Colin Powell lied and said Iraq has chemical weapons and they tried to provide a kind of propaganda that Iraq had chemical weapons or was hiding chemical weapons and they justified American occupation of Iraq.

The White Helmets are completing the story. The White Helmets are small representatives of the CIA and the MI6 in Syria who want to change the regime in Syria and, therefore, as geopolitical targets it is very much, much far from the Syrian people's demands for freedom and democracy, etc. We are used to hearing that from Western countries and they use their representatives and agents to achieve their agenda in the Middle East and in the third world in general.

READ MORE: US, EU Will Try to Get Away With Bombing Syria Over False Evidence — Russian MoD

Sputnik: Do you think there's any chance that the three nations, the US, France and the UK, the ones that responded by attacking Syrian targets even before the OPCW conducted its mission and before there was any hard evidence and now a year later we see there is no evidence, do you think these three nations will ever be accountable for those attacks?

Dr Taleb Ibrahim: Unfortunately, no. No one will be accountable, and the three nations, the United States, France, and the United Kingdom are unaccountable. They are permanent members of the Security Council and they use the veto to constrain and stop any kind of account against them.

I think those nations, as you have mentioned, they launched their attack before the final OPCW report that means they had intentions to attack Syria and to stop the Syrian Army's military operation to regain all the Syrian soil from the hands of the terrorists because they are the real supporters of terrorists and they use terrorists as tools to achieve their geopolitical goals in the Middle East and in Syria especially. Unfortunately, we are in a very, very different world and in very bad world.

There's no value for any international law or international ethics or values. There are rogue nations who are indeed criminal countries and who are using lies to justify attacks against legitimate regimes in another countries like in Iraq, in Libya and they were about to do that in Syria but thank God we have really good friends in Russia and Iran that prevent that kind of attack; and if Russia wasn't in Syria, Syria would be another Libya.

The views expressed in this article are solely those of Dr Taleb Ibrahim and do not necessarily reflect the official position of Sputnik.