Ahrar Al-Sham
plans to launch chemical attack on civilians, blame it on Syria govt – Syrian
UN envoy
Published time:
26 Sep, 2016 01:22Edited time: 26 Sep, 2016 03:09
Rebel fighters
from the Ahrar al-Sham Islamic Movement © Khalil Ashawi / Reuters
Militants from
Ahrar Al-Sham, a hardline Islamist group, are planning to use white phosphorus
in an attack on civilians to later blame it on Syrian armed forces, UN envoy
Bashar Ja’afari told a UN Security Council emergency meeting on Sunday.
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“I have
information that Ahrar Al-Sham terrorists intend to mount attacks on civilian
population using white phosphorus for the sake of fabricating accusations
against the Syrian state and its army,” the diplomat said at the meeting as cited by TASS.
To falsify the
evidence and make their claims sound more credible, the militants plan to pose
as Syrian army troops as they deploy the banned substance, Ja’afari said,
adding that imposters are going to put on Syrian army uniforms and film the
whole incident on camera. He did not elaborate on the source of the
intelligence.
White
phosphorus is an extremely poisonous toxic agent able to inflict severe burn
injuries and is banned from use in civilian areas, according to international
law. It is only legitimate to deploy the chemical to create a smokescreen, make
signals, or markings for friendly troops. The US has repeatedly used this
loophole to use white phosphorus during Middle Eastern campaigns while claiming
the indiscriminate weapon is only used as a smokescreen for advancing troops.
Most recently, US military deployed white phosphorus shells in Iraq, saying
they were used to “obscure” Kurdish fighters’ offensive
against Islamists.
Speaking of the
alleged upcoming provocation, Ja’afari mentioned the suspicious activity by
American experts, who, he claimed, had visited one of the chemical munitions
depots in the rebel-held town of Saraqib in the northwestern Idlib province.
Upon examining the site, the experts departed Syria for Turkey, he claimed.
For its part,
Syria has been acting in full compliance with the UN Charter and international
law on warfare, Ja’afari said, repelling accusations of alleged use of
incendiary weapons by the Syrian forces.
“We condemn the
statements of several UN representatives that we are using banned weapons or
targeting the civilian population,” he said, pointing to the fact that the UN, at the same time, is
turning a blind eye to the use of chemical weapons by rebels.
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In March,
Islamist militants of the Ahrar Al group along with a string of other armed
opposition groups were accused by shelling the predominantly Kurdish Sheikh
Maqsood neighborhood of Aleppo with yellow phosphorus by Kurdish YPG fighters.
Ahrar Al-Sham
also committed a bulk of violations that contributed the ceasefire failure in
Syria, according to the Russian military. The group, which is believed to be
allied with Al-Nusra Front, has rejected the latest ceasefire, but is still not
officially recognized as terrorist by US-led coalition despite Russia’s
repeated requests.
“Not long ago,
the Americans at last sent us a list of organizations which they consider to be
part of the ceasefire and which should not be targeted. In one of the first
positions there is Ahrar al-Sham,” Russian
FM Sergey Lavrov said in interview to Sputnik earlier in September, adding that
it “seems the Americans are listing a part of a terrorist structure,
which is recognized as such by the UN, as an organization loyal to them.”
While the
meeting was focused on the escalation of hostilities in Aleppo, where the
Syrian armed forces are conducting a large-scale anti-terror operation in the
eastern part of the embattled city, the US, UK and French representatives have
demonstratively walked out from the meeting before the Syrian envoy was about
to give Syria’s government prospective on the issue.
In his turn,
Ja’afari slammed the countries for disrupting the peace process in Syria by
carrying out airstrikes at Syrian army positions.
“Several UN
member states should stop lying to themselves and to the whole world,” he said.
Despite the
repeated violations of the ceasefire by the rebels, Syria is ready to breathe
life in the stalled intra-Syrian talks and renew the negotiations but only with
those forces who are “genuine patriots of their country and not acting
on orders from abroad and receive money there.”
The Syrian
envoy pointed out that Syrian government take all possible measures to ensure
the civilian population would not suffer from the offensive, asking them to
keep away from terrorist positions. However, the militants “do not let
the civilians leave Aleppo and use them as [human] shields,” the envoy
said.
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