West preparing to use provocation with chemical weapons in Idlib to strike Syria, thus supporting terrorists' offensive - Russian Defense Ministry
HMEIMIM. Aug 26 (Interfax) - The West is going to use a provocation using chemical weapons involving the White Helmets, which is being prepared in Idlib, to strike Syria and support militants' offensive, the Russian Defense Ministry said.
"The provocation, which is planned with active participation of the British special services, should become a pretext for the United States, the United Kingdom and France to deliver a new missile and aviation strike on Syrian state industrial and economic infrastructure facilities to support militants' offensive on Hama and Aleppo, which is being prepared," Alexei Tsygankov, the head of the Russian center for reconciliation of opposing sides in Syria, told a briefing on Saturday evening.
"The West is ready to again support terrorists and carry out this act of aggression against a sovereign state in breach of all norms of international law, which will inevitably cause another sharp aggravation of the situation in the Middle Eastern region and disrupt the process of peaceful settlement of the Syrian conflict," he said.
According to the Russian military, terrorists have delivered to the Idlib province containers with chlorine to organize provocations using chemical weapons.
"So-called training is being conducted in the populated area of Jisr al-Shughour under the leadership of representatives of the organization White Helmets to practice actions 'in a situation of chemical contamination.' Militants from the group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (banned in Russia) have delivered eight containers with chlorine. They are now located in the populated area of Halluz in a warehouse of Hizb at-Turkestan al-Islami," he said.
"The Western countries made statements on their readiness for missile strikes on Syria synchronously with the calls made by terrorist leader al-Julani on preparations for a 'jihad,'" Tsygankov said.