A report by the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) on the incident in the Syrian Duma ignores events organized by the Russian permanent mission. This was stated by the Permanent Representative of the Russian Federation at the OPCW Alexander Shulgin at a press conference in The Hague.

“We are extremely disappointed that the report actually ignores the events that were held here in April 2018,” RIA Novosti quoted Shulgin as saying.

Recall, on March 1, the OPCW published a report on the results of the investigation of the incident in the Syrian city of Duma on April 7, 2018. Experts involved in the preparation of the document concluded that a “toxic chemical” was used as a weapon. According to their data, “most likely,” we are talking about chlorine.

The reason for the proceedings was the statements of the Western media referring to non-governmental organizations about the alleged “himatak” in the Duma, in which, according to the authors of the reports, several dozen people died. The initiator of the "attack" the media called Damascus. The Russian side considered the publication of this information as a stuffing, stating that the British authorities took part in the preparation of the provocation.

  • Permanent representative of the Russian Federation at the OPCW Alexander Shulgin
  • Reuters
  • © Yves Herman

Shulgin drew attention to how the OPCW report highlighted the arrival of witnesses from Syria who were brought in to clarify the circumstances of the incident. The Permanent Representative of the Russian Federation at the OPCW noted that the report contains a “microscopic reference” to the fact that “some allegedly alleged witnesses made some statements in The Hague”.

The testimony of the Syrians devalued despite the fact that they were captured on the videos of the "White Helmets", they are called "alleged witnesses," said a Russian diplomat.

Shulgin called presented in the report ballistic calculations dubious and added that the data on the dead were taken from the ceiling. According to him, the document is contradictory and filled with gaps, inconsistencies and inconsistencies.

“In some ways, the experts of the OPCW refute the idle fancies of the white squadrons, on the other hand, in some aspects they rely on these indications. The ballistic calculations look dubious ..., the figures of the dead - from 43 to 500 people - are generally taken from the ceiling, or rather from the filing of these pseudo-humanities, “White Helmets,” the diplomat said.

He added that the samples brought to The Hague from the Duma were a “dead weight” for a long time.

“The samples themselves, brought to The Hague, at least most of them, were lying dead in the OPCW laboratory. They said that the hands do not reach, a large workload. But it seems no one needed these tests, ”Shulgin concluded.

At the same time, no traces of the use of organophosphorous substances of the nerve agent in the Syrian Duma were found. This was announced in the Hague by the deputy head of the radiation, chemical and biological defense forces (RCBZ) of the RF Armed Forces Sergey Kikot.

According to him, contrary to the informational stuffings that the White Helmets distributed, the decay products and impurities of these substances were not found.

"Neither in samples from the environment, nor in the plasma samples of the alleged victims," ​​- said Kikot.

The representative of the Armed Forces of Russia noted that Russian specialists had been prevented from entering the sampling site in the Duma.

“Even representatives of the Russian military police were not allowed to take the sampling site. They guarded the outer zone and did not observe the course of sampling and the one with whom the mission specialists communicated, ”Kikot specified. At the same time, he added that, according to his information, sampling was carried out in compliance with the rules and regulations.

However, the representative of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation noted that the experts of the OPCW, which allow the use of chlorine in the Duma, ignore the analysis of the height of the discharge of cylinders containing the alleged chemical substance.

“It should be noted that the specialists who built the model and estimated the interaction between the cylinder and the building’s ceiling do not indicate in the report for which height of the discharge these calculations are constructed. This is very important and crucial, ”said Kikot.

“Ignored eyewitness accounts”

The Syrian side noted “the politicization of the report and pointed out the lack of neutrality and objectivity in the work.

“The fact-finding mission used different interpretations of the presence of toxic chemical materials: sometimes they considered their presence as evidence of the use of chemical weapons, others did not,” RIA Novosti quotes Syria’s Permanent Representative to the OPCW, Bassam Sabah.

In Damascus, attention was drawn to the fact that the number of samples collected in the Duma differs from the number of samples that were in The Hague.

“We asked where (samples. - RT ) and who collected them. We have not received a response. Yes, there are samples that are involved in the investigation, and we have no information about them, ”said Sabah. He added that Damascus does not have confidence in the standards of sample storage.

In addition, the representative of Syria stated double standards demonstrated in processing eyewitness reports in Syria and interviewing witnesses outside the Arab Republic.

In turn, the Syrian Foreign Ministry said that the report was prepared by non-professional experts and distorts the facts.

The authors of the report "ignored eyewitness accounts describing allegations of the use of chemical weapons in the Duma as the statement of terrorist groups," say the Syrian foreign ministry.

ATS MFA called the incident in the Duma "completely fabricated" and called on members of the OPCW to abandon the work with the document.

Staged attack

In February 2019, BBC's producer in Syria, Riam Dalati, stated that the shooting of the scene in the hospital after the “chemical attack” in the Syrian Duma was staged.

“After six months of investigation, I can no doubt confirm that the scene filmed in the hospital in the Duma was staged. There were no casualties in the hospital, ”Dalati wrote on Twitter.

https://russian.rt.com/world/article/610166-stena-tramp-granitsa

According to him, the chemical attack was carried out, but, contrary to reports of the Western media, it did not use the substance sarin.

“But everything else related to the attack was fabricated to enhance the effect,” said Dalati.

The Russian Foreign Ministry, in response to this information, stated that the West was aware of the details of the incident from the very beginning.

“I think the West understood all this perfectly from the very beginning, because some Western countries organized these provocations, including through the notorious“ White Helmets ”- a humanitarian organization headed by a former MI-6 employee,” the head said of the Russian Foreign Ministry Sergei Lavrov during a speech at the Munich Security Conference.

Later, information about staging an “attack” in the Duma was commented in the Russian Ministry of Defense. The ministry said they were not surprised by this state of affairs.

“The Russian military is not surprised by the appearance of discouraging for the West conclusions of the producer of the British BBC TV channel Riam Dalati about the staging of personnel rendering assistance by the White Helmets to the residents of the Syrian Duma (Eastern Guta) allegedly injured by the Himataki on April 7, 2018 Russian Defense Ministry, Major General Igor Konashenkov.

He noted that videos like the Himatak record in the Duma could be used as a pretext for attacking any state.

“On the basis of the false rollers of the next-fed“ white squad ”about the threat of himatak, Western capitals will be able to launch rocket attacks against any state they dislike without any sanction of the UN Security Council. That is, the mood ", - concluded Konashenkov.