On April 11, the White Hosue released a “declassified four-page report” on the alleged chemical weapons attack in the village of Khan Shaykhun in the Syrian province of Idlib.
The United States accuses the Syrian and Russian government in providing a disinformation and “false narratives” over the attack, adding that Washington is sure that the Assad government is responsible for the attack.
However, the report provides only a “summary” of the United States vision of the situation. According to it, the United States have intelligence and evidence of the attack but it cannot provide it because they are classified…
The report says that the Syrian government maintains a capability to conduct chemical weapons attack to prevent “the loss of territory deemed critical to its survival”. Then, the “declassified” report just retells the story provided by hard-core “pro-opposition” media outlets and activists -in other words, supporters of Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (formerly Jabhat al-Nusra, the Syrian branch of al-Qaeda) and Ahrar al-Sham (a radical islamist group that cooperated with ISIS until 2014). It should be noted that the report added some “fresh” facts to the opposition story – for example, it argues that some “personnel historically associated with Syria’s chemical weapons program” were at the Shayarat military airfield. However, this part lacks evidence.
Guys from the White House have also hardly seen the current maps of northern Hama and Syria if they really believe that the “Assad regime” suffers some notable setbacks across the country or in northern Hama itself.
By April 4, pro-government forces had reverced almost all gains of the “opposition forces” led by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (the report forgets to mention this) in northern Hama. Since then, the situation has been more or less stable. Furthermore, Khan Shaykhun is far away from the current frontline.
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Meanwhile, the Syrian government is in control of the city of Aleppo, a large area east of it and its forces are advancing in the Palmyra countryside.
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According to the report, it’s nice time to use some “chemical weapons” to save the Assad regime.
Then, the report once again refers to videos posted by the “opposition” and reports provided by “human rights organizations” (probably the primary source is White Helmets?).
And the rest of the paper is dedicated to blaiming and shaming of Russia and Syria.
