Idlib: Terrorists, White Helmets Preparing for New Chemical Plot against Syrian Gov’t

The Russian Reconciliation Center for Syria quoted the sources as disclosing that the Al-Nusra has transferred over 20 chlorine gas cylinders to one of the villages in Idlib province.

The sources told the Russian center that Al-Nusra is to carry out provocative measures with the White Helmets’ cooperation to later accuse the Syrian army of a new chemical attack on the militants.

Also, RT quoted the Russian Center as saying that it’s been warned that the Al-Nusra terrorists brought in chlorine containers to a local village, where they aimed to work with the White Helmets to stage “a false-flag operation.”

Late on Monday, the Russian Center received a phone call from a resident of the village of Saraqib in Idlib province about the planned incident.

According to the source, on the afternoon of February 12, Al-Nusra Front brought three cars packed with more than 20 cylinders of chlorine along with personal protective equipment to Saraqib.

Additionally, according to the caller, representatives of the local branch of the White Helmets, wearing individual means of protection, conducted rehearsals of “giving first aid” to “local residents” who were supposedly suffering from poisoning.

The information received from the Idlib resident raised a red flag for members of the Russian Center for Reconciliation in Syria.

According to the center, this indicates that the Al-Nusra terrorists along with the White Helmets are plotting another “provocation” with the use of poisonous substances in Idlib province, aimed at accusing the Syrian authorities of using chemical weapons against local residents.

A prominent politician said last week that Washington’s renewed claims about Syria’s use of chemical weapons was aimed at a new plot against Damascus.

Ahmad al-Ra’ie, the leader of the Syrian Forces Union, was quoted as saying by the Arabic service of Sputnik news agency that the US officials’ claims that the Syrian army used chemical weapons were nothing but a prelude to implement a big plot in Syria.

He noted that the American officials admitted that there was no evidence for such allegations, and said, “There is a scenario – and we have been used to it – in which a group of terrorists fire chemical weapons and then the US blames the Syrian army for using chemical weapons and an international crisis starts.”

Al-Ra’ie said that Syria is able to foil the US plots but it needs to regain control of the suspicious regions in order not to allow the Americans to send chemical weapons to them for such false flag operations.

In similar remarks in early February, Abdel Bari Atwan, the editor-in-chief of Rai al-Youm newspaper, warned that Washington’s recent allegations that the government in Damascus has used chemical weapons are aimed at justifying its possible future strikes against the Syrian army positions.

“The golden rule which had existed since 7 years ago and the start of the crisis in Syria is that every time the US has felt that its plots in Syria have been foiled, it raised the issue of chemical weapons as a pretext to attack the Syrian army positions,” Atwan wrote.

He referred to the recent remarks by US Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis who claimed that Washington is concerned about the potential use of sarin gas in Syria, a day after the US warned it was prepared to consider military action if necessary to deter, what it called, chemical weapons attacks by the Syrian government, and said Mattis, meantime, has admitted that there is no evidence to corroborate that the Syrian government has used Sarin.

Atwan also pointed to other US officials’ remarks who had claimed that the Syrian government and the ISIL use chemical weapons, and said, “Such comments are dangerous as they put the Syrian government and the ISIL on the same side and raise similar accusations against them and exonerate other (terrorist) groups (than the ISIL) from them.”

Sarin is a colorless and tasteless toxin that can cause respiratory failure leading to death.

Accusing the government of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad of using chemical weapons against civilians, the US launched several dozen Tomahawk cruise missiles at a Syrian air base last April after a sarin gas attack on Khan Shaykhun in Idlib Province claimed at least 80 lives.

“We are on the record and you all have seen how we reacted to that, so they would be ill-advised to go back to violating the chemical (weapons) convention,” Mattis said recently.

This is while the Syrian government has fiercely denied using or even possessing chemical weapons since the country’s compliance with the Chemical Weapons Convention was certified by international observers in 2013.