DAMASCUS (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 02nd October, 2019) Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Muallem said on Wednesday that Mike Pompeo, who has recently blamed Damascus for a chemical attack in Latakia, was "not the first US secretary of state to tell a lie."
Last week, Pompeo claimed that Syrian President Bashar Assad's government carried out a chlorine attack in the province of Latakia on May 19. Damascus has dismissed the claims as a "big lie."
"I have already said that this is a lie on the whole and in its details. As for Pompeo, he's not the first US secretary of state to tell a lie. We have witnessed many instances of lies by both him and his predecessors," Muallem told Lebanon's Al Mayadeen broadcaster.
The Syrian government has repeatedly denied using chemical weapons, noting that it has long ago destroyed the relevant arsenal under the supervision of the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons.
Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Vershinin, in turn, expressed regret that the United States had come up with its accusations before a UN probe into the matter had been completed. He warned that such claims might hamper the political settlement in Syria.
