DISINFO: Using chemical weapons in Syria was part of an information war
SUMMARY
Syrians have gained new experiences over the past decade through the war. Even information wars are no longer able to have an impact and have lost credibility, especially after false accusations of using chemical weapons, which were destroyed in Syria at the request of the Russian side. Not because of Assad, but in order to prevent it from falling into the hands of organisations designated as terrorist.
RESPONSE
Recurring pro-Kremlin disinformation narrative absolving the Syrian regime of responsibility for chemical attacks in general.
The declared Syrian chemical weapon stockpile was reported to be completely destroyed in 2014. However, the inspectors from the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) could only authenticate that declared chemical weapons had been destroyed, even though there were suspicions in the West that Syria had hidden as much as 10% of its stockpile.
The OPCW’s Fact-Finding Mission confirmed that people in Khan Shaykhun were exposed to sarin, a chemical weapon, on 4 April 2017. The JIM found Syria’s Government responsible for the attack.
And in September 2017, the UN Commission of Inquiry on Syria summarised 33 separate incidents where it had found the use of chemical weapons.
On April 10 2018, Russia vetoed a US-drafted UN Security Council resolution that would have created a new inquiry to ascertain responsibility for chemical weapons attacks in Syria. In June, the OPCW members granted it the power to assign blame for chemical attacks.
The United Nations Human Rights Council blamed the Syrian government forces for the attack.
Read more about chemical attacks in Syria here and here, and other cases claiming that Syria does not possess any chemical weapons, that the White Helmets used chemical weapons in Syria in order to accuse the Assad government and that the White Helmets have falsified chemical attacks evidence.