"So, in an area where there has been fighting until recently but where the Syrian Arab Army (Government) has been making steady progress and where the terrorist opposition forces have been getting hammered, it does not make sense for the Government forces to use nerve gas, and it makes no sense at all to use it against large numbers of civilians, including children, who appear to comprise the majority of the victims"
"And let us observe this from another angle: does the presence of the UN team in Syria to investigate use of weapons of mass destruction favour the Government? Yes, because it will discover the Government has not used any. Will it favour the terrorists? No, because they have used chemical weapons before and everyone knows so, that is why the west went silent about previous attacks after accusing the Government. After all, in May the UN investigation team leader, Carla del Ponte, stated there was evidence the "opposition" had used chemical agents, including Sarin gas. This came after two Syrian "opposition" leaders were caught on an audio recording of a phone conversation discussing attacks with chemical weapons and let us not forget the "opposition" laboratories last year filmed gassing rabbits with nerve agents. In this column I predicted today's event at the time.
The Syrian authorities strongly deny today's claim as being completely untrue. For the Government, these wild and absurd allegations denote the hysteria and demoralized state the "opposition" is in, as it is pressed back on all fronts".
Timothy Bancroft-Hinchey 21.08.13
Pravda
