Islam Times - Moscow: US Seeks to Cover Real Culprits Behind Chemical Weapons Provocations

Islam Times - The United States and its European allies seek to cover the real culprits behind chemical weapons provocations by bringing accusations against Russia and turning up the heat on the Syrian authorities, Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said at a briefing on Friday.

"The US calls on its allies to continue turning up the heat on the Syrian leadership and sending - as they put it - strong signals to Russia at the upcoming Conference of the States Parties to the Chemical Weapons Convention. The goal clearly is to do everything possible to cover the real masterminds and organizers of all those chemical weapons provocations," she emphasized, TASS reported.

According to Zakharova, Syrian militants have developed skills in chemical terrorism thanks to the support of their Euro-Atlantic partners.

"It seems that the US and its allies, pursuing their own geopolitical goals, don’t care about how this kind of approach will affect the security situation in the Middle East and beyond," she added.

The US remains the only member of the Chemical Weapons Convention that has not yet completed the elimination of its declared chemical weapon stockpile, the Russian diplomat pointed out.

"The incident involving Russian blogger Navalny makes it clear that many US allies, including those in Europe, have the knowledge and technical capacities to create Novichok agents. That said, their allegations that Russia has a state chemical weapons program and undermines the norms of the Chemical Weapons Convention look like unscrupulous attempts to justify activities to oppose Russia through sanctions in an absolutely cynical way, which has become the habit of the US and its allies," Zakharova noted.

The Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman also said that the US and its allies deliberately sought to involve the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) in their political game. However, in Zakharova’s words, the organization’s reputation has been tarnished as a result of "scandals surrounding fake reports on chemical weapons provocations in Syria".

Their attempts to impose their will on the OPCW Technical Secretarial is what undermines the organization’s work, the diplomat stressed.