US intel assessment based on ‘terrorist lies’ and ‘media hype’ – Syrian Foreign Ministry
The intelligence assessment the US administration presented as evidence that the Syrian government deployed chemical weapons on its own people is baseless and based on “terrorist lies” and “media exaggeration,” Syrian foreign ministry sources say.
A source at the Foreign and Expatriates Ministry told Sana,
Syria’s state-owned news agency, that any American military
action in Syria would only serve the political interests of the
United States, despite pledges from US lawmakers that the action
is meant to curb the use of chemical weapons against civilians.
In a statement released in tandem with remarks by US Secretary of
State John Kerry on Friday, the US government says they assess
“with high confidence” that the Syrian government and
President Bashar al-Assad in particular were responsible for
killing hundreds of people in a chemical weapons attack last
week.
The source at the Syrian ministry, in response to Kerry’s
accusation said that the US intelligence assessment is based on
fabrication and lies and unverified social media stories that
were published by “terrorists” over a week ago.
“The Syrian government affirms that Kerry’s allegations that
the Syrian Army knew about chemical weapons use three days prior
to the incident are lies,” the source told Sana, “as
proven by the fact that Syria requested the investigation
committee to visit al-Bahaia area where Syrian Army soldiers were
exposed to toxic gas, and the committee met the affected soldiers
in the area.”
The ministry source accused the US of failure to provide “one
piece of true and logical evidence” that the government was
behind the attack, saying that instead Washington relies on
“fabricated images from the internet, and the alleged call
made by a Syrian officer after the alleged attack is too
ridiculous to be discussed.”
Syria maintains that it never hindered the UN investigation
committee from doing their work on the ground. The source
emphasized that the Syrian government did not delay the expert’s
access to the alleged attack site.
“The UN itself said time and again that the traces of using any
form of toxic gas do not dissipate over time, and the proof of
this is that the UN sent the investigation committee 5 months
after the Syrian government requested an investigation of Khan
al-Assal incident,” Sana reports.
The Ministry also alleged that Washington pushed for a limited mandate of the UN investigating team to be able to interpret the results of the probe as they pleased.
“Regarding Kerry's hints which he made to bypass the Security Council under the pretext that the investigation committee isn't responsible for determining who used chemical weapons and that it's task is only to verify that such weapons were used or not, the Foreign and Expatriates Ministry would like to affirm that the committee's tasks were decided upon by the Security Council, and that the US had pressured the committee to make its authority this limited, something which Kerry, being State Secretary, certainly knows.”
In the extracts of the classified US report released Friday, the American intelligence community had been aware of an impending chemical weapon attack three days before the August 21 crisis.
While US officials cannot determine for certain that Assad forces launched the assault, Kerry did say it claimed the lives of 1,429 Syrians, including no less than 426 children.
“Our high confidence assessment is the strongest position that the US Intelligence Community can take short of confirmation,” a government report read in part. “We will continue to seek additional information to close gaps in our understanding of what took place.”
More than 100,000 people have been killed and over one million displaced since the Syrian civil war began over three years ago. United Nations investigators have spent the final days of August attempting to determine just what kind of weapons have been used on the streets of Damascus, where the Assad government has been trying to clear out opposition forces.
