DAMASCUS, (SANA) – Minister of Information Omran al-Zoubi held the countries that are arming the ‘opposition’ responsible for the crime committed in Khan al-Asal in Aleppo countryside. In a statement to the journalists on Tuesday, Minister al-Zoubi said that the terrorists’ firing of a rocket with chemical substances from Da’el area in al-Neirab on Khan al-Asal is a “dangerous escalation”. He stressed that the governments of Erdogan and Qatar bear legal, moral and political responsibility for the crime which claimed the lives of 25 persons and wounded over 100, the majority of them are in critical condition.
Al-Zoubi said that the crime is a first impact of the Arab League’s decision on the Ministerial Level. “Whoever got involved and announced direct and public military support to the terrorists, whether he was an emir, a minister or a prime minister, must be held to account for the crime,” he stressed.
The Minister indicated that that the terrorists used an internationally-banned weapon, calling upon the international community and the countries which are funding and arming the terrorists to assume their responsibility for this crime. Al-Zoubi said that using this banned weapon is considered as a “dangerous shift in the course of what is taking place in Syria on the security and military levels”. He added that the Syrian government has the right to act in accordance with the international law and file a lawsuit against the countries which are arming the opposition with internationally-banned weapons as to face the risks of providing such weapons to Jabhat al-Nusra terrorist organization. He pointed out that the toxic gases and materials involved in the rocket cause immediate fainting, quiver and death, stressing that this type of weapons usually come under the category of “lethal and internationally-banned weapons”.
Minsiter al-Zoubi reiterated that “This shift in the type and manner of arming the terrorists embodied in using weapons imported from outside Syria across the border with some neighboring countries means that all allegations made by some countries, such as France, UK, Qatar and Turkey on providing logistic and “non-lethal” weapons to the armed terrorist groups in Syria are mere talk to sell the media.” He stressed that the terrorist crime committed in Aleppo is “an exceptional case, compared to the events in the world at least over the last fifty years, that an internationally-banned weapon being used publically in this manner and from an area where Western and Turkish intelligence, among others are operating, along with the Jabhat al-Nusra members among other armed terrorist groups.” He lashed out at “the false logic” of Europeans and Americans when they talk about the existence of chemical weapons in Syria that are being prepared to be used by the Syrian military leaderships, stressing that this “horrible crime is a clear indisputable evidence on terrorists using such internationally-banned weapons.” The Information Minister affirmed that the Syrian armed forces can never use any internationally banned or prohibited weapons, if it possess any, and that Syria is always committed to the agreements and protocols it signed in this regard. He said that resolutions the Arab Ministerial Council came out with on “arming the opposition” is “an attempt to provide a cover, legitimacy and legality to a standing reality” since arms supplies to the terrorist groups are coming from various countries paid by the Qatari government. Al-Zoubi stressed that the situation on the ground is good and going well as planned for in terms of confrontation with the terrorist groups and that the morale of the armed forces are at their best contrary to the lies circulated by the media around the clock. He pointed out that a number of terrorists, as shown in a filmed video, recently conducted tests under the name “Gale” in which they used chemical materials and toxic gases on rats treating to launch chemical attacks. The armed forces restored security and stability to parts of Khan al-Asal area last November.
Deputy Foreign Minister: Syria Committed to Defending Its People
Later, Deputy Foreign and Expatriates Minister, Faisal al-Mikdad, said this new crime in Khan al-Asal adds to the record of the terrorist groups that are backed by some countries in the Gulf and the West and Turkey in particular, “which we hold responsible for the crimes against the civilians and the destruction taking place in Syria.” “We warned throughout the past months of the allegations circulated by some countries and parties on the possibility of us using chemical weapons, and we stressed that in case Syria possessed any such weapons, it wouldn’t use them against its civilians under any circumstances,” al-Mikdad pointed out. He stressed that Syria is committed to its right to defend its people and combat terrorism and its supporters, calling upon the international community to put an end to the interference of the US, France, Britain and Gulf states in the Syrian affairs and their training and arming of terrorists as this would reflect negatively on the region and the countries backing terrorism.
