US using chemical weapons as pretext for intervention in Syria: President Assad
Tehran (KNA) - Syrian President Bashar al-Assad says the United States is using the issue of chemical weapons as a pretext to carry out an attack against the Syrian army.
Assad said in an interview with Russian television channel NTV on Sunday that such allegations were being used as an excuse for an intervention.
"The story with chemical weapons is a pretext for a direct military intervention and attacks on the Syrian army," the president said, adding, "We fully eliminated chemical weapons. We haven't had them in Syria since 2013.
"The Syrian government surrendered its stockpile of chemical weapons in 2014 to a joint mission led by the United Nations and the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), which oversaw the destruction of the weaponry.Washington and its allies have often pointed the finger at the Syrian government over chemical attacks. Damascus has consistently denied the claim.
"These provocations have nothing to do with reality. This is the result of their own imagination, and that of the media, and something ... invented by their mass media is further disseminated across the world through the Internet and other media. That's why it is impossible to prevent this provocation. Americans constantly lie and attack immediately," the Syrian president stated.Source: PressTV