Russia's Permanent Representative to the UN Vasily Nebenzya said Wednesday that militants and the White Helmets were preparing new staged chemical attacks in Syria's Idlib.
"The terrorist group the Hayat Tahrir al-Sham now controls basically 90 percent of the province, and the terrorists continue their provocative raids against the government force," Nebenzia said. "We are seriously concerned by the new information stating that the Hayat Tahrir al-Sham fighters with the support of the infamous White Helmets are preparing new staged events with the use of toxic elements."
Moscow and Damascus have on a multitude of occasions pointed out that the White Helmets have staged a number of provocations in Syria involving the use of chemical weapons in order to blame them on the Syrian government and provide Western countries with justification for intervention in the Arab Republic.
The notorious NGO has repeatedly been busted staging and filming false-flag attacks: last April, the group published footage featuring doctors in Douma hospitals treating patients that had suffered from an alleged chemical attack by the Syrian Arab Army.
READ MORE: 'White Helmets Give the West an Excuse to Bomb Assad' — Political Writer
Reports of the purported use of chemical agents in Eastern Ghouta surfaced on 7 April 2018 in some media, citing militants on the ground.
A number of Western countries, including France, the US and the UK, quickly picked up the claims and instantly accused Syrian President Bashar al-Assad of having dropped a chlorine bomb on civilians. Damascus vehemently denied the allegations, denouncing the attack as a staged provocation to justify potential foreign intervention.
