Syrian President Bashar Assad denied using chemical weapons on his own people last week in an interview Thursday and called reports of an attack a “fabrication.”
“We don’t make any attack,” he said. “We don’t have any chemical weapons, we give up our arsenal three years ago. Even if we had them we wouldn’t use them, and we have never used our chemical arsenal in our history.”
The interview was done with the AFP wire services, which had to agree to stringent approval authority from the Syrian government in order to get the interview. American reports suggested the interview was highly edited.
The AFP reported Assad went on to say the reports of the chemical attack that killed up to 100 civilians last week was a “fabrication.”
Assad questioned whether the horrifying video images from the attack were real.
“You know whether those dead children … were they dead at all? Who committed the attack, if there was an attack? You have no information at all,” he said.
Assad added he “definitely” thinks the attack didn’t really happen.
“One hundred percent fabrication,” he said. “We don’t have arsenal. We’re not going to use it. And, you have many indications, if you don’t have proof because no one has concrete evidence or information.”
The Pentagon and U.S. intelligence community have determined the Syrian air force dropped bombs containing sarin gas on Syrian civilians last Tuesday. Supporters of Assad have argued that either the attack was done by rebels or a conventional air strike hit a weapons manufacturing factory that was making sarin gas, releasing the chemical weapon onto the populace.
President Trump ordered a missile strike last week in retaliation for the chemical weapons attack.
