A UN investigation into the use of chemical weapons in Syria has been completed. Chemical weapons of the West in Syria: the manufacturer officially arms the Islamists The use of chemical weapons in Syria

The situation with the alleged "chemical attack" of government forces in Syrian Idlib is gradually clearing up. Recall that earlier the UN demanded to find those responsible for the attack with the use of chemical weapons. At the same time, it was immediately clear that the UN wanted to find the "responsible" among the Assad forces. This was stated by the UN special envoy for Syria Staffan de Mistura.

"What happened this morning, we discussed it with (the head of EU diplomacy) Federica Mogherini, terrible. We demand, and the UN will demand, and I am sure that there will be a meeting of the UN Security Council on this issue, to determine responsibility," said de Mistura to journalists at a joint press conference with Mogherini.

However, the further, the more obvious it becomes that there was no chemical attack - and, in fact, could not be. At the moment, experts unanimously declare that if there were poisonous substances, they, in all likelihood, belonged to the "opposition" and terrorists.

"The media are promoting the version that Assad's troops used chemical weapons in Idlib. Complete (fig) ota, because our General Staff is in charge of all the hostilities in the region. the cannon will not fire Many will write today that it is like the Red Army decided to use chemical weapons against the barmaley, but with this version immediately to psychiatrists.

Regarding the turnover of weapons of mass destruction, there are very respected international agreements, which only the 3rd world will be able to violate. And finally stop studying the words of General Konashenkov under the microscope. Now such boobies are writing texts to him that it becomes scary for military journalism. In his department there were only those who were dropped headfirst on the stairs in childhood, normal men fled for a long time to other floors, "write in the expert Telegram channel.

Meanwhile, Igor Dimitriev, who is currently stationed directly in Syria, voices at home on Facebook about the same rating. Among other things, supplemented by calculations on the disposition and actions of government troops.

“Yesterday I was in the vicinity of Hama. Government forces repulsed the Islamist attack and launched an offensive on Idlib. Sheikhoun Khan blocks the road from Damascus to Aleppo, the country's main road, and therefore has strategic importance. The CAA has no tactical or informational grounds for using gas. The offensive is underway. And theoretically it is difficult to even imagine why Assad would want to substitute himself like that, ”Dimitriev writes.

In addition, he voiced his version of what happened: “But even if there was still a massive gas poisoning in Idlib, the Syrians are more likely to be right, who say that they managed to bomb a chemical laboratory. Moreover, all the really confirmed facts of the use of chemical warfare agents are related only to the opposition. The government handed over the existing chemical weapons two years ago to an international commission. And on the territory recaptured from the Islamists, laboratories with remnants of military substances have been found more than once.

And this version, in all likelihood, is completely true. The information about the attack on the positions of the terrorists has been officially confirmed. Government forces reportedly launched an airstrike on the outskirts of the Khan Sheikhun settlement in Idlib province. There was a terrorist ammunition depot and an accumulation of military equipment.

It is known for certain that on the territory of the warehouse there were workshops for the production of land mines filled with toxic substances. The chemical weapons were then delivered to Iraq. It can be assumed that it was the explosion at the warehouse that led to the leakage of toxic substances and subsequent casualties.

However, the National Coalition of Opposition and Revolutionary Forces of Syria (NCORS) announced a chemical attack by government forces that killed 80 people and injured 200. The UN supported their point of view. But, as it turns out now, it is not Assad's troops that are to blame for the use of prohibited military substances.

Who exactly was behind the attack is not reported.

The Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) has confirmed the use of chlorine and sarin in the Syrian province Hama in March 2017.

This is stated in the message of the organization, reports RBC.

We are talking about the attacks on March 24 and 25 in the settlement of Al-Latamna in northern Syria. According to OPCW experts, in the first case, they used sarin, in the second - chlorine. Who exactly was behind the attack with the use of chemical weapons has not been reported.

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The organization found confirmation of a chemical attack after an epidemiological analysis of victims and samples the environment in these territories.

The OPCW transmitted its report and the results of the study to all its member states and to the UN Security Council.

On April 14, US President Donald Trump issued an emergency statement that the armed forces of the United States, Britain and France attacked Syrian chemical weapons facilities.

Later, the newspaper The New York Times, citing representatives of the UK Department of Defense, reported that four British Panavia Tornado fighter-bombers who fired Storm Shadow cruise missiles towards a facility near the city of Homs, where chemical weapons were believed to be secretly stored.

Damascus said that these missile strikes on Syria are a gross violation of international laws... And state television noted that Western media significantly exaggerated the results of nighttime air strikes. They showed an appeal from the country's Ministry of Information, in which citizens are urged "not to pay attention to any media reports."

A gas attack in the Syrian city of Khan Shaykhun killed more than 60 people.

At first, the Syrian Human Rights Monitoring Center (London) reported 35 victims, however, according to the medical service, their number is growing.

“These patients show clear signs of an organophosphate attack,” says volunteer doctor Shayul Islyam. - The hospital is overcrowded with patients who have suffered from some kind of chemical. It's not chlorine, we don't smell chlorine. "

Eyewitnesses: government troops inflicted airstrikes

In the same time informational portal Orient News, which supports the Syrian opposition, reported more than 40 fatalities: “Al-Assad's planes launched three airstrikes. During one of them, poisonous gas was used. The symptoms we see are not caused by chlorine poisoning - the victims are drooling. We still have about 100 wounded and many of them are stuck under the rubble. "

The Syrian authorities agreed to destroy chemical weapons in 2013, but later the UN, during an investigation, discovered at least three cases of the use of chemical weapons in 2014 and 2015. On the eve of the chemical attack, the US representative to the UN Nikki Haley harshly condemned the actions of the Syrian authorities and personally President Bashar al-Assad.

“Syria is something that worries us very much. We have no love for al-Assad, we make it very clear. We think that he obstructed peace for a long time. I think he is a war criminal and what he does to his people is more than disgusting, ”said Nikki Haley, the US spokeswoman for the UN.

Khan Shaykhun is being held back by Syrian opposition forces, which blame government forces for what happened. The al-Assad regime, in turn, denies the use of chemical weapons. Meanwhile, ambulance workers confirm that many victims on the streets of the city do not have time to save, people are dying of suffocation.

Igor Vinyavsky / ICh

As stated in a joint statement by US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson, French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian and German Foreign Minister Sigmar Gabriel, their countries fully trust the findings of the IDA and believe in the professionalism and independence of this body.

The Syrian regime violated international law, including the Chemical Weapons Convention. “We condemn this heinous act and demand that the Syrian regime immediately cease any use of chemical weapons and finally declare all available stocks of chemical weapons in the OPCW,” the document says.

The IDA also concluded that ISIS was responsible for a two-day mustard gas attack in Um Khush city in September 2016. “We also condemn this heinous act and are united in our determination to end this terrorist movement once and for all. We condemn the use of chemical weapons, regardless of who and where does it, ”the foreign ministers of the four countries said in a statement.

The statement emphasizes: “We are unanimous in the opinion that it is extremely important that the international community continues to investigate the cases of the use of chemical weapons in Syria. We call on the UN Security Council to preserve the investigative capacity of the IDA. We also call on the OPCW Executive Council to take action on the IDA report and make it clear that those involved in the use of chemical weapons will be held accountable. ”

As noted by Tillerson and his colleagues, unfortunately, this is not the first report identifying those responsible for the use of chemical weapons in Syria. In 2016, the IDA concluded that the Syrian regime was responsible for the use of chlorin on at least three occasions in 2014 and 2015, and ISIL used mustard gas once in 2015.

The document notes that the IDA still has a lot of work to do. The OPCW reports that it was "highly likely" that sarin was used in the Khan Sheikhoun attack a week before locality Al-Latamina, and the characteristics of the attack are reminiscent of the actions of the Syrian regime.

“A strong international response is needed to bring those responsible to justice, bring justice to the victims of these heinous attacks, and prevent similar attacks in the future. Following such a report, the UN Security Council and all of its members bear joint responsibility for protecting the international non-proliferation regime and fulfilling previous obligations, ”the statement said.

Futile hopes. Russia will block in the Security Council any resolution directed against Bashar al-Assad.

Since in 2011 in Syria began Civil War which involves the state armed forces, the opposition, as well as the Syrian Kurds and Islamic terrorist organizations, use of chemical weapons in different regions of the country has become a frequent occurrence.

Moreover, it has always been difficult for the world community to establish who is striking the blow: the sides each time "turn the arrows" on each other. Noitog remains unchanged: after inhalation of toxic substances, civilians suffer and die.

In 2012 the first reports of the use of chemical weapons in Syria began to appear, after which the incumbent President of the United States Barack Obama established a "red line" for the regime Bashar al-Assad, the President of Syria. The American politician said that if the world community finds out about Assad's use of poisonous substances, then "It will completely change the rules of the game" and will entail outside interference... But despite his words, in 2013 a series of five major chemical attacks occurred, which were further investigated UN.

The first massive use of chemical weapons occurred March 19, 2013 when in the suburbs of the largest Syrian city of Aleppo, Khan el-Asal, a rocket with toxic substances was launched, presumably sarin gas... As a result of the attack, more than a hundred people were injured, 16 of whom were killed. The government and the opposition blamed each other.

Less loud was the second incident, about the details of which there is much more speculation than reliable data. BBC reports that April 29 of the same year from a helicopter to the city Sarakeb at least two poison gas devices were dropped. Eight people were injured, one woman was killed.

Almost four months later, August 21, in one of the suburbs of Damascus, Gute under control opposition, there was one of the largest casualties in a missile attack with using sarin. There is no single agreed information on the number of victims, but on average, this is 500-1,300 Human.

This tragedy seriously disturbed the world community, which could not stand aside. Major powers such as USA and Russia are divided over who is right and who is wrong. Russia has sided with the Assad regime, which is shifting responsibility onto the shoulders of the opposition. USA, France, Turkey, Canada, Saudi Arabia on the contrary, the official government of Syria was considered guilty.

Chemical attacks were the last straw for these countries 24 August in Jabare and the next day at Ashrafiye-Sakhnae, after which the states began to prepare for military intervention in Syria. Russia came to the aid of Assad, which managed to negotiate with the United States and resolve the situation in a different way.

September 2013 the Syrian government signed The Chemical Weapons Convention, and by the beginning of the summer of 2014, presumably all available chemical weapons had been surrendered.

Nevertheless, poisonous substances have been used more than once in Syria. The most high-profile incidents were the bombing Talmanes April 21, 2014 and Sarmina March 16, 2015... In both cases, the chemical weapon component was chlorine... The Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, with the support of the UN, has found the Syrian government guilty. Russia opposed.

In a chemical attack that happened just the other day, April, 4, in the northern province of Idlib, the city Khan Sheikhun, USA blames Assad. And so Donald Trump took a decisive step: at the Syrian airbase, where, presumably, government planes using chemical weapons were located.

Vladimir Putin of the United States as a violation of international law. Russia has developed a different vision of the situation. According to them, the Syrian air force attacked an opposition warehouse where chemical weapons were stored.

Syrian Human Rights Observatory says chemical weapons killed 72 people, among whom there are children. The total number of victims is about 300 people... Until now, there are disputes about the type of the poisonous substance. The most popular versions are - sarin or chlorine... The data on ammunition, which can be both bombs and missiles, has not been finally established either.

History: the military conflict in Syria and the use of chemical weapons updated: March 30, 2019 by: Marina Dashchenko