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Telling Tales: Why US Continues to Write 'Assad and Chemical Weapons Saga'

© REUTERS / Bassam Khabieh Residents inspect a damaged site after what activists said were air strikes by forces loyal to Syria's President Bashar al-Assad in Douma eastern Al-Ghouta, near Damascus January 25, 2015
Residents inspect a damaged site after what activists said were air strikes by forces loyal to Syria's President Bashar al-Assad in Douma eastern Al-Ghouta, near Damascus January 25, 2015 - Sputnik International
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Amid the numerous successes of the Syrian army, Washington deliberately ramps up the rhetoric about the alleged use of chemical weapons by Damascus so as to demonize Syrian President Bashar Assad, a Russian military expert told Sputnik.

In a speech earlier this week dedicated to the 4th anniversary of the deadly Ghouta chemical weapons attack, US Ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley called for the prosecution of those involved in the use of toxic agents in Syria.

Touting efforts by the international community to eliminate the chemical weapons program in Syria, Haley claimed that President Assad allegedly "continues to use chemical weapons in attacks on his own people." 

A U.N. chemical weapons expert, wearing a gas mask, holds a plastic bag containing samples from one of the sites of an alleged chemical weapons attack in the Ain Tarma neighbourhood of Damascus, Syria. (File) - Sputnik International
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She specifically referred to a chemical weapons incident in the city of Khan Sheikhoun on April 4, 2017, when she alleged "a Syrian plane dropped a sarin gas bomb."

Speaking to Sputnik, Russian military expert Andrey Koshkin said that it is no accident that the alleged use of chemical weapons by Assad's government remains high on Washington's agenda even though no evidence has been provided.

"The United States and the whole of the West are writing a sort of detective saga titled 'Assad and the Chemical Weapons'. This is a very profitable theme to constantly draw the world’s attention to the allegations that Bashar Assad is a very bad president," Koshkin said. 

He added that "today we see the successes of the Syrian government troops which come against the background of the fourth anniversary of the Ghouta chemical attack which was most likely conducted by the Syrian opposition."

"The US sees these two aspects as a 'new page' to make the global community believe that Assad is a 'fearful regime' that allegedly uses chemical weapons against his own people. But these allegations have never been confirmed," Koshkin said.

According to him, those in the White House "even came up with the term 'remote investigation' in order to cheat ordinary people [in the US] and work themselves into a state."

© REUTERS / Ammar AbdullahA civil defence member breathes through an oxygen mask, after what rescue workers described as a suspected gas attack in the Syrian town of Khan Sheikhoun, April 4, 2017
A civil defence member breathes through an oxygen mask, after what rescue workers described as a suspected gas attack in the Syrian town of Khan Sheikhoun, April 4, 2017 - Sputnik International
A civil defence member breathes through an oxygen mask, after what rescue workers described as a suspected gas attack in the Syrian town of Khan Sheikhoun, April 4, 2017

At least 281 people were killed in an alleged chemical weapons attack in the Damascus suburb of Ghouta on August 21, 2013, with some reports putting the death toll at 1,729.

On April 4, 2016, the National Coalition for Syrian Revolutionary and Opposition Forces, supported by the United States, blamed Damascus for the Khan Sheikhoun incident that left 80 people dead, including children, and injured 200 more.

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The Syrian army strongly rejected the accusations and laid the blame on local militants. The Syrian authorities said that they had never used chemical weapons against civilians or terrorists, and that the nation's entire chemical arsenal had been destroyed under the control of the OPCW.

Reacting to the incident, Washington, which has not presented any proof of the use of chemical weapons by Damascus, launched 59 cruise missiles at the Syrian governmental military airfield in Ash Sha'irat on April 7.

On April 21, Syrian President Bashar Assad told Sputnik that there was no chemical weapon attack in Idlib, adding that the reports were a false flag and a fabrication which was used to justify a US missile strike on Syrian airbase.

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