Russia denies Syria’s Assad to blame for chemical attack, on course for collision with Trump

MOSCOW/BEIRUT – Russia denied on Wednesday that Syrian President Bashar al-Assad was to blame for a suspected chemical attack
and said it would continue to back him, setting the Kremlin on course
for its biggest diplomatic collision yet with Donald Trump’s White
House.

Western countries, including the United States, blamed Assad’s armed
forces for the worst chemical attack in Syria for more than four years,
which choked scores of people to death in the town of Khan Sheikhoun in a
rebel-held area on Tuesday.

Washington said it believed the deaths were caused by sarin nerve gas
dropped by Syrian aircraft. But Moscow offered an alternative
explanation that would shield Assad: that the poison gas belonged to
rebels and had leaked from an insurgent weapons depot hit by Syrian
bombs.

Two U.S. officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, rejected
Russia’s account: “That strains credulity,” said one. “Russian
assertions do not comport with reality.”

The United States, Britain and France have proposed a draft U.N.
Security Council resolution that would pin the blame on Damascus. But
the Russian Foreign Ministry called the resolution “unacceptable” and
said it was based on “fake information”.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Russia would take its case blaming the rebels for the poisoning to the United Nations.

“Russia and its armed forces will continue their operations to support
the anti-terrorist operations of Syria’s armed forces to free the
country,” Peskov told reporters.

Video uploaded to social media showed civilians sprawled on the ground,
some in convulsions, others lifeless. Rescue workers hose down the limp
bodies of small children, trying to wash away chemicals. People wail
and pound on the chests of victims.

The charity Medecins Sans Frontieres said one of its hospitals in Syria
had treated patients “with symptoms – dilated pupils, muscle spasms,
involuntary defecation – consistent with exposure to neuro-toxic agents
such as sarin”. The World Health Organization also said the symptoms
were consistent with exposure to a nerve agent.

Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan said the attack had killed more than
100 people. That death toll could not be independently confirmed.

Hasan Haj Ali, commander of the Free Idlib Army rebel group, called the
Russian statement blaming the rebels a “lie” and said rebels did not
have the capability to produce nerve gas.

“Everyone saw the plane while it was bombing with gas,” he told Reuters
from northwestern Syria. “Likewise, all the civilians in the area know
that there are no military positions there, or places for the
manufacture (of weapons).”

The incident is the first time Washington has accused Assad of using
sarin since 2013, when hundreds of people died in an attack on a
Damascus suburb. At that time, Washington said Assad had crossed a “red
line” set by then-President Barack Obama.

Obama threatened an air campaign to topple Assad but called it off at
the last minute after the Syrian leader agreed to give up his chemical
arsenal under a deal brokered by Moscow, a decision which Trump has long
said proved Obama’s weakness.

The new incident means Trump is faced with same dilemma that faced his
predecessor: whether to openly challenge Moscow and risk deep
involvement in a Middle East war by seeking to punish Assad for using
banned weapons, or compromise and accept the Syrian leader remaining in
power at the risk of looking weak.

Trump described Tuesday’s incident as “heinous actions by the Bashar
al-Assad regime”, but also faulted Obama for having failed to enforce
the red line four years ago. Obama’s spokesman declined to comment.

The draft U.N. Security Council statement condemns the attack and
demands an investigation. Russia has the power to veto it, which it has
done to block all previous resolutions that would harm Assad, most
recently in February.

France’s foreign minister said the chemical attack showed Assad was
testing whether the new U.S. administration would stand by Obama-era
demands that he be removed from power.

“It’s a test. That’s why France repeats the messages, notably to the
Americans, to clarify their position,” Jean-Marc Ayrault told RTL radio.
“I told them that we need clarity. What’s your position?”

Trump’s response to a diplomatic confrontation with Moscow will be
closely watched at home because of accusations by his political
opponents that he is too supportive of Russian President Vladimir Putin.

He has previously said the United States and Russia should work more closely in Syria to fight against Islamic State.

U.S. intelligence agencies say Russia intervened in the U.S.
presidential election last year through computer hacking to help Trump
defeat Hillary Clinton. The FBI and two congressional committees are
investigating whether figures from the Trump campaign colluded with
Moscow, which the White House denies.

The chemical attack in Idlib province, one of the last major
strongholds of rebels that have fought since 2011 to topple Assad,
complicates diplomatic efforts to end a war that has killed hundreds of
thousands of people and driven half of Syrians from their homes.

Over the past several months Western countries, including the United
States, had been quietly dropping their demands that Assad leave power
in any deal to end the war, accepting that the rebels no longer had the
capability to topple him by force.

The use of banned chemical weapons would make it harder for the
international community to sign off on any peace deal that does not
remove him.

British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson, who two months ago shifted his
country’s policy by saying Assad could be allowed to run for
re-election, said on Wednesday that he must go.

“This is a barbaric regime that has made it impossible for us to
imagine them continuing to be an authority over the people of Syria
after this conflict is over.”