MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 26th November, 2019) Damascus is not surprised by a WikiLeaks assertion that the OPCW report on the alleged April 2018 chemical attack in the Syrian city of Duma was significantly doctored, believing that it was really done to point the finger at the Syrian government and cover up armed groups, Imad Moustapha, the Syrian ambassador to China and a former envoy to the United States, told Sputnik on Monday.
On Saturday, whistleblowing website WikiLeaks published an e-mail, sent by a member of an OPCW fact-finding mission to Syria to his superiors, in which he voices his "gravest" concerns over a redacted version of the report he co-authored. According to the OPCW employee, the modified report misrepresented facts, omitted certain details and introduced "unintended bias," having "morphed into something quite different to what was originally drafted." In the three-page letter, he outlined some of "particularly worrisome" aspects.
"The information revealed in this email is not new to us. The Syrian government has already been told by previous investigating teams that their reports were significantly editorialized and twisted to convey a predetermined indictment against the Syrian government while all evidences were pointing to the armed groups and their white-helmets stage directors," Moustapha told Sputnik.
He stressed that "every team without exception" had assured the Syrian government that their findings substantiated the government's account of events, which, nevertheless, had not been reflected in the final report.
"However, the reports published by the OPCW secretariat came in stark contrast to their findings and were heavily manipulated to serve the political agendas of the Western powers," the diplomat added.
On April 7, 2018, reports about an alleged chemical attack in Eastern Ghouta's Duma emerged. The European Union and the US promptly accused Damascus of being behind it. The Syrian government denied any involvement in the incident. Damascus and Moscow said that the attack was staged by local militants and non-governmental organization White Helmets.
A week later, without waiting for the results of the international investigation, the US, the United Kingdom and France hit what they called Damascus' chemical weapons facilities with over 100 missiles in response to the reported attack.
The OPCW finally arrived on the site with a great delay to conduct a probe. In March 2019, it issued a report on its investigation, saying that chlorine was "most likely" the chemical agent used in the incident but stopped short of apportioning blame.
