Russia: No Proof of Assad’s Guilt in Chemical Attack

Western Officials Insist There's 'No Doubt'

US and French officials continue to present the UN report on the chemical weapons attack in Syria as vindication for their narrative, insisting it leaves “no doubt” of culpability. Russia strongly disagrees.

Russia, which has insisted all along that the rebels could’ve been behind the strike, notes that the UN report makes no attempt to assign guilt, and added that there was no proof for the Western allegations.

“We have very serious grounds to believe that this was a provocation,” insisted Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, and while there’s no proof of that either, the situation remains extremely murky.

Indeed, the UN report’s data raises a lot of questions, with the evidence pointing to a much smaller attack than the US was claiming, meaning that US narrative claiming the strike was too advanced for the rebels to carry out is no longer the case.

Author: Jason Ditz

Jason Ditz is Senior Editor for Antiwar.com. He has 20 years of experience in foreign policy research and his work has appeared in The American Conservative, Responsible Statecraft, Forbes, Toronto Star, Minneapolis Star-Tribune, Providence Journal, Washington Times, and the Detroit Free Press.