Syria’s President Bashar-al Assad says reports of a chemical attack by his forces were “100% fabrication”. In an exclusive video interview with Agence France-Presse, he said “there was no order to make any attack”.
More than 80 people were killed in the rebel-held town of Khan Sheikhoun on 4 April, and hundreds suff ered symptoms consistent with a nerve agent. Witnesses said they saw warplanes attack the town but Russia says a rebel depot of chemical munitions was hit.
Shocking footage showed victims – many of them children – convulsing and foaming at the mouth. Suff erers were taken to hospitals across the border in Turkey, which opposes Mr Assad. Turkey has since said it has “concrete evidence” that the nerve agent Sarin was used.
Mr Assad told the AFP news agency that the Syrian government gave up its arsenal of chemical weapons in 2013, adding “even if we have them, we wouldn’t use them”.
However, since 2013, there have been continued allegations that chemicals such as chlorine and ammonia have been used against civilians in the ongoing civil war.
Th e Syrian government has repeatedly denied using them, blaming rebel groups in some instances. Mr Assad accused the West of making up events in Khan Sheikhoun so it had an excuse to carry out missile strikes on the government’s Shayrat airbase, which took place a few days after the alleged attack.
“It’s stage one, the play [they staged] that we saw on social network and TVs, then propaganda and then stage two, the military attack,” he said, questioning the authenticity of the video footage. He also said Khan Sheikhoun, in Syria’s north-western Idlib province, had no strategic value and was not currently a battle front. “Th is story is not convincing by any means,” he told the AFP.
