Al-Assad: Syria trusts Russia, accepts its chemical weapons initiative

Syria agreed to put its chemical weapons under international control in reply to Russia’s initiative, not because it was scared by America’s aggressive threats, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad told Russia 24 television channel on Thursday, September 12. Syria took this step to avoid “participating in a new insane war the U.S. militaristic circles intend to unleash in the Middle East,” he said. “People in the region, specifically in Afghanistan and Iraq, are still paying for the American adventures,” he added. Russia “has confirmed that it is a great power that can be counted on, and this is why we accepted its proposal,” the president said. Assad stressed that Damascus insists on the return of the U.N. chemical weapons experts to the country in order to “finish their work as prescribed by the signed protocol and visit the regions where the use of chemical weapons was reported, particularly Khan al-Asal near Aleppo.” “This must be done in order to determine where the rebels got the toxic gases. The countries that provided them with chemical substances and allowed them to be used must be held accountable,” Assad said. He noted that “Washington has so far not presented any convincing evidence to prove its accusations against Damascus.” The United States “used propaganda tricks to justify its wars” before during the George W. Bush rule as well. “This happened ten years ago when Secretary of State Colin Powell accused Baghdad of making weapons of mass destruction, which later turned out be untrue,” the Syrian president said. In his opinion, the present U.S. administration “is lying less professionally than its predecessors.” “This time their lie could not convince even their allies,” he added.