Russian President Vladimir Putin was wrong to suggest that the chemical weapons attack in Syria last week was staged or faked, according to the State Department.
“There’s no false flag with respect to calling this what it was, which is a gross offense against international norms and standards,” acting State Department spokesman Mark Toner told reporters Tuesday. “Chemical weapons, their use in Syria, is a red line and if used again, we reserve the right to act in the same capacity.”
Putin claimed earlier Tuesday that the gas attack was a “staged” event designed to justify U.S. attacks against Syrian President Bashar Assad’s regime. President Trump’s team has dismissed all such denials of Assad’s responsibility, however, and threatened to strike again if the 59 Tomahawk cruise missiles fired last week fail to deter the Assad regime from using the weapons.
“This resembles very much the situation of 2003 and the war in Iraq,” Putin said during a press conference. “We have information that a similar provocation is being prepared … in other parts of Syria including in the southern Damascus suburbs where they are planning to again plant some substance and accuse the Syrian authorities of using [chemical weapons].”
The Russian Foreign Ministry amplified that theory by accusing the United States of relying on “pseudo-NGOs whose barefaced lies” allegedly provide a distorted view of Assad’s behavior. Russia singled out “the notorious White Helmets” as a particular source of dishonest information.
“We wonder how much longer our American colleagues will rely on fake photo reports when taking decisions that can affect the lives of people in Syria,” Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov’s team said Tuesday.
The White Helmets have been hailed in the west as heroic volunteers for rescuing and caring for civilians in the Syrian war zone. A documentary about the group earned an Oscar in February. “It was crystal clear to us that this was carried out and it was carried out by the Syrian regime,” Toner said.
