The statements about the beginning of the offensive of the Syrian army on Idlib are untrue, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said Friday during the meeting of the German-Russian forum in Berlin.
MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 14th September, 2018) The statements about the beginning of the offensive of the Syrian army on Idlib are untrue, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said Friday during the meeting of the German-Russian forum in Berlin.
"What is now being presented as the beginning of the offensive by the Syrian troops with Russian support is an untrue representation of the facts. Both the Syrian troops, and we are only responding to the attacks from the Idlib zone," Lavrov said.
He indicated that terrorists controlling Idlib were carrying out attacks on the Syrian government forces with the help of resources that they were receiving outside of Syria. According to Lavrov, the situation in the region is being further complicated by the fact that the terrorists use the civilians residing in the area as a human shield.
He added that Russia would create humanitarian corridors in Idlib, and make every effort to prevent civilians from suffering.
"I assure you that we will approach these issues as carefully as possible, we will create humanitarian corridors ... we will do our best so that the civilian population will not suffer. We will not act in the same way that the [US-led] coalition acted in Iraqi Mosul and in the Syrian Raqqa," the minister stressed.
Speaking about the speculations about the use of chemical weapons in Idlib, Lavrov said that Russia was providing facts proving the preparation of a staged chemical attack in Idlib daily.
"We provide on a daily basis the facts proving that another provocation, which is likely to be carried out by the so-called White Helmets, is being prepared," Lavrov said.
Lavrov stated that there were no facts supporting the western countries' claims about Damascus' readiness to carry out a chemical attack.
"When [the West] claims that the Syrian government is going to use chemical weapons and then France, the United Kingdom and the United States would deliver a crushing blow on [the Syrian] 'regime,' as they call it, it is, in fact, an invitation for the extremists to stage another attack," Lavrov said.
He added that the current developments were leading to the scenario used in Eastern Ghouta, which was hit by France, the United Kingdom and the United States' airstrikes after a reported chemical weapons attack on civilians in the Syrian city of Duma.
"They do not provide a single fact [proving] that the [Syrian] government is preparing anything of that kind, while the facts that are being made public by our servicemen every day about how the preparation is going on, how many barrels of chlorine have been delivered are being ignored," Lavrov noted.
Many territories, surrounding the city of Idlib, are currently occupied by members of various terrorist groups, who carry out attacks on the positions of the Syrian government forces.
The tensions in the region escalated against the backdrop of Western media campaign alleging the possible chemical attack in the region by the Syrian government forces. Meanwhile, the Russian Center for Syrian Reconciliation said that it had registered signs of preparations for false flag chemical attacks in the province.
