Mock chemical attack being planned in Syria: Russia

Moscow, June 30: Russia said it had information that a staged mock-up of a chemical attack in Syria was being planned as a provocation in order to put the blame on that county's President.

White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer had on Monday warned of potential preparations to carry out a new chemical weapons attack by the government of President Bashar al-Assad and warned that Syrian armed forces would pay a heavy price if an poisonous offensive was unleashed.

Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesperson Maria Zajharova said here on Thursday that Russia had new details regarding a chemical attack being planned which she defined as "a provocation", Efe news reported.

On her Twitter account, Zakhrova said that Washington's claims were "neither new nor original" and that the US had resorted to "fabricated facts" in the past.

On June 26, the US government announced it had "identified potential preparations for another chemical weapons attack by the Assad regime that would likely result in the mass murder of civilians, including innocent children," similar to the alleged April 4 Khan Shaykhun chemical attack which the US squarely blamed Damascus for.

The Russian diplomat added that Moscow did not discard the possibility that the Syrian towns of Saraqib and Ariha had been selected as targets for a "large-scale provocation with the use of chemical weapons".

IANS