Russia: 'Credible Information' Of Impending Staged Chemical Attack In Syria

Russia Warns "Credible Information" Of Impending Staged Chemical Attack In Syria

As the world's attention was focused on Singapore and the historic Trump-Kim summit this week, and with broad media acknowledgement that Assad has won the war for Syria, the time could be ripe for some kind of major event to jolt the globe's focus back to the war, now in its seventh year, which could be slowly winding down.

It seems to occur every time the Syrian Army is on a trajectory of overwhelming victory: an ill-timed and strategically nonsensical mass chemical attack on civilians supposedly ordered by Assad — inevitably giving the West an open door for military intervention, new rounds of crippling sanctions, and yet more international media condemnation heaped on Damascus. 

And this week the Russian Defense Ministry has warned of just such a scenario. Russian Defense Ministry Spokesman Igor Konashenkov said early in the week that US-backed Free Syrian Army (FSA) forces are planning a "serious provocation" aimed at justifying a new round of Western coalition missile attacks against Syrian government bases and facilities.

Konashenkov, in a statement carried by Russian state-run TASS and subsequently featured in a One America News report, said "According to the information confirmed through three independent channels in Syria, the command of the so-called ‘Free Syrian Army’ aided by the forces of the US special ops units are preparing a serious provocation involving chemical warfare agents in the Deir ez-Zor province."

The TASS media release explained further:

According to Konashenkov, FSA militants have delivered chlorine cylinders to the Syrian Deir ez-Zor province to simulate another "chemical attack against civilians."

"After being published in western media a staged video is set to initiate a missile strike on Syria’s state facilities by the US-led coalition and justify an offensive operation by militants against Syrian governmental forces on the eastern bank of the Euphrates River," he said, adding that Russia’s Defense Ministry warns that the use of such provocations for destabilization of the environment on the Syrian territory is unacceptable.

Though there's currently no way to verify if such claims are true, and no "staged video" has yet to surface on the internet, the Russian Defense Ministry appears to be painting a potential future scenario much like last April's chemical attack incident: it was video of mass civilian death which directly led to Western airstrikes on Syria. 

A new One America News report features the Russian Defense Ministry claims:

After the Saudi-backed jihadist group Jaish al-Islam, working in tandem with the US/UK sponsored White Helmets, claimed a Syrian Army chemical attack against civilians in Douma on April 7, the US-led coalition launched over a hundred missiles on government facilities primarily in and around Damascus. This was done even as the UN and global chemical watchdog organization, the OPCW, said there were no independent observers on the ground to confirm whether or not a chemical attack even took place, much less who was to blame.