State Department, at It Again—Charges Syria ‘May Be Renewing’ Chemical Weapons Use

May 22, 2019 (EIRNS)—In a May 21 statement, State Department spokeswoman Morgan Ortagus charged that “unfortunately, we continue to see signs that the Assad regime may be renewing its use of chemical weapons, including an alleged chlorine attack in northwest Syria on the morning of May 19.” Notice the wording, “may be,” as State admits that, “we are still gathering information on this incident, but we repeat our warning that if the Assad regime uses chemical weapons, the United States and our allies will respond quickly and appropriately.”

The statement demands, moreover, that Assad’s

“attacks against the communities of northwest Syria must end. The United States reiterates its warning, first issued by President Trump in September 2018, that an attack against the Idlib de-escalation zone would be a reckless escalation that threatens to destabilize the region.”

As for chemical weapons, State defensively claims that Russia’s April 25 charges against the White Helmets and others—that have been proven to be terrorist assets—“are part of a continuing disinformation campaign by the Assad regime and Russia to create the false narrative that others are to blame for chemical weapons attacks that the Assad regime itself is conducting.” Referencing Nov. 24, 2018, when it claims that “the Assad regime and Russia attempted to fabricate a chemical weapons attack near Aleppo and blame it on opposition forces,” State goes on to claim that “at times, Russia and the Assad regime have made these false allegations as a pretext in advance of the Assad regime’s own barbaric chemical weapons attacks. The facts, however, are clear. The Assad regime itself has conducted almost all verified chemical weapons attacks that have taken place in Syria.”

Ignoring the report from the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons engineers disputing that organization’s “official” findings of Syrian chemical weapons use, State insists that the OPCW’s Joint Investigation Mechanism has “repeatedly verified and reported the Assad regime’s use of chemical weapons. The Assad regime’s culpability in horrific chemical weapons attacks is undeniable.”

Added to this piece of sophistry is the letter written to President Donald Trump May 20 by a bipartisan and bicameral group of 400 U.S. legislators, demanding that the U.S. not withdraw from Syria, in order to defend it from “growing threats to U.S. interests, [and defend] Israel and regional security.” The “threats” are identified not only as terrorist groups, but also Russia and Iran.