Resurrecting The Big Lie:

The Myth of Syria “Gas Attack” on Its People

Rasa - Chief of Staff of the Iranian Armed Forces Major General Mohammad Hossein Baqeri underlined that the country's Armed Forces are prepared to give a rigid response to any possible aggressive act by the enemies.

News ID: 428689

Date: 06 April 2017 - 01:05

RNA - Western leaders, including President Trump, blame the Syrian government for a catastrophic “gas attack” that hit the northwestern province of Idlib on Tuesday. They are calling on its allies, Iran and Russia, to prevent a recurrence of what they describe as a war crime.

In this particular incident, at least 100 people were killed and another 400 are suffering from respiratory problems, with the toll expected to grow, according to the Union of Medical Care Organizations. Exactly what the nature of the “gas attack” was is totally uncertain. As of yet there is no confirmation on what sort of attack it was, though Qaeda-allied “moderates” have been all quick to blame the Syrian Army.

That the Syrian Army will never use any chemical or other toxic material in any of its airstrikes against terrorist groups’ positions is beyond dispute. What is certain is that the Syrian Army has no chemical weapons. Syria, of course, gave up its chemical arsenal years ago, and that’s according to the United Nations!

However, that has not stopped the United States and its allies from blaming Syria, issuing a statement immediately declaring the incident a “crime against humanity,” and calling for an emergency UN Security Council meeting related to the attack. This is while, they know and the whole world knows that the foreign-backed terrorist groups are losing the regime change campaign, they have failed to achieve the goals of their sponsors, and they are desperate to eke out a few more days, even if that requires using chemical weapons against the civilian population and then accusing the Syrian Army for it.

Here is the bedrock reality:

Emails leaked from a British defense company, Britam, have revealed a plan already in place and approved by the White House to give chemical weapons to the hired terrorists, to use on civilians, in order to frame the Syrian government and thus justify a direct US intervention, as the covert attempt at an overthrow is, after nearly six years, starting to lose badly. So we know this plan was in process already.

The Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons has on many occasions accused ISIL, Qaeda-linked militants, and a variety of rebel groups of using banned mustard gas in Iraq and Syria. In December 2016, Syrian authorities also provided the Organization with evidence of mustard gas use by militants in Aleppo province. The problem is, the attacks and the evidence were all ignored by Western governments.

It is indeed silly to blame the Syrian government for carrying out the Tuesday chemical weapons attack, especially at a time when a major international meeting is underway in Brussels where officials are debating whether the European Union and other countries will contribute billions of dollars for reconstructing Syria if it is presided over by a government run by President Bashar Assad. Simply put, it will create international backlash.

All this has some truth to it. A spokesman for Russian Defense Ministry, Maj. Gen. Igor Konashenkov, also says Syrian warplanes had struck an insurgent storehouse containing toxic substances to be used in chemical weapons. This is not an attempt to defend the Russian explanation, but a reminder as to how complex and dangerous the conflict has actually become.

The messaging is plain though. In these pestilent and perilous times, the very idea of distinction between truth and falsehood is under siege. It is more critical than ever to keep a sharp lookout for destructive false news dished up by the US-led coalition and proxies. Without an anchor in provable fact it is dangerously easy to get taken in by them. They seek to cheat the world community out of their support for Syria’s war against terrorism with big lies and fake news.

This especially ugly lie resurfaces periodically and is just as devoid of proof, but this fake news is not harmless. It is dangerous. In condensed form, here’s why:

This criminal enterprise could open disturbing and unpredictable scenarios - a direct military conflict between Iran, Syria, Russia and the United States. It’s a scenario that the Qaeda-linked militants, Saudi Arabia and Israel would very much like to see unfold. It may lead not to an exchange of nuclear strikes, but to severance of diplomatic relations between Russia and the United States, and hence growing tensions worldwide.

It is hard to say how such a conflict may end if it, regretfully, occurs. Still, it can be predicted confidently that it will put an end to the familiar regional order. As a result, the region will probably fall back on the model of many closed, mutually hostile national states, with the cult of armed forces and terror proxies the only ideology and without any norms of International Law.

The ideology of tolerance will not survive, either. Rather, an ideology of intransigence will be officially postulated. Following a collision between Iran, Syria, Russia and the United States, the region will never experience peace and security again. The bottom line is that the ongoing anti-Syria animus is showing that major elements of it are self-defeating and unworkable, because they are premised on big lies and fake news.

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