Alwaght- Syria’s President Bashar al-Assad said a suspected chemical weapons attack in the country was a “fabrication” to justify the US missile attack on the Arab country.
In an exclusive interview with AFP in Damascus, President Assad added that the firepower of the Syrian army had not been affected by the attack ordered by US President Donald Trump last Friday, but acknowledged further strikes were possible.
The Syrian leader reiterated his forces had turned over all their chemical weapons stocks years ago and would never use the banned arms. “Definitely, 100 percent for us, Khan Shaikhoun’s attack is fabrication,” he said of the incident.
“They fabricated the whole story in order to have a pretext for the attack,” added Assad. “This story is not convincing by any means.”
He insisted several times that his forces had turned over all chemical weapons stockpiles in 2013, under a deal brokered by Russia to avoid threatened US military action.
“There was no order to make any attack, we don’t have any chemical weapons, we gave up our arsenal a few years ago,” he said.
Pointing out that no-one has investigated what happened in Khan Sheikhoun, President Assad said the town is under the control of al-Nusra Front, which is a branch of al-Qaeda. He added that the only information the world has had till this moment on the Khan Sheikhoun incident has been released by the al-Qaeda branch.
US Defending Terrorists
President Assad said if the US or any other country is serious in fighting terrorists, Syria will welcome it as a partner adding that this is the basic principle of Damascus. However, Assad said he has been vindicated in his assertion that the US is not only not fighting terrorists by is actually hand in glove with the terrorists. The Syrian president reiterated that the US and the West, are not serious in fighting the terrorists, and some of their statesmen were defending ISIS by saying that the Takfiri terrorist group doesn’t have chemical weapons. He further noted that, “They are defending ISIS against the Syrian government and the Syrian Army. So, actually, you cannot talk about partnership between us who work against the terrorists and who fight the terrorism and the others who are supporting explicitly the terrorists.”
Syrian Air Force Intact
The Syrian president rejected claims that 20% of his country’s air force had been destroyed during the attack by US Tomahawk missiles on Shayrat Airfield in Homs last Friday. He noted that only a few airplanes were destroyed, most of them old ones and that some of them were not active. President Assad pointed out that since the US strike, Syrian Air Force has not stopped attacking terrorists all over the country adding that the Air Force’s firepower and ability to attack the terrorists hasn’t been affected by this strike.
US not serious on Syria political solution
On the Geneva process co-sponsored by the US and Russia to solve Syria’s political crisis politically, president Assad noted that the process has been ineffective because Washington is not serious in achieving any political solution. He said the US wants to use the Geneva process as an umbrella for the terrorists, or to get in this forum what they didn’t get on the ground in the battlefield.
President Assad described as painful the human situation in Syria, the daily blood-letting, the daily blood-shedding, the suffering and the hardship that inflicted every house in Syria. The Syrian president added that he will not tire in defending his country adding that he is unmoved by Western propaganda and threats by backers of terrorists.
