As America and its allies prepare for military action in Syria in retaliation for a chemical weapons attack on civilians, the Russians, Chinese and others are expressing skepticism over assertions that the Assad regime is responsible. For Izvestia, laying out the Russian case for why the rebels are the most likely culprits is historian Stanislav Khatuntsev. Khatuntsev not only rips into the credibility of those claiming that the Syrian regime is responsible, he lays out why the Syrian rebels, who he calls ‘Islamists’, are the only ones to benefit from the attack in Eastern Guta – an oasis near Damascus, which has effectively frozen the conflict in place just as government forces were closing in.
For Izvestia, Stanislav Khatuntsev writes in part:
Unless Damascus wants more global obstacles, it will be forced to cease operations in Guta. The situation is similar to a phone call about a bomb planted in a school. Specialists understand that the call – even if a prank played by a troublemaker or criminal, distracts from the real issue, making it necessary to verify and defer any intended course of action until later.
It should be noted that the rebels have chemical agents at their disposal, along with the means to dispatch them. They are “homemade,” but quite lethal nonetheless. According to reliable reports, the Islamists have already used them – on March 19 this year, among other occasions, in the north of the country south of Aleppo.
It is also of no small importance that according to information from the Kurdish National Council in Syria, the incident occurred in a place inhabited mainly by Kurds. In recent weeks, the Islamists have been actively at war with them. Therefore, the Kurds can be seen as opponents of the rebels, and at a minimum, potential allies of Assad. Damascus benefits absolutely nothing by turning potential allies into enemies, whereas the Islamists are always ready to exterminate their foes, and ideally in some fanatical manner.
So at the moment, the picture of the possible use of weapons of mass destruction in the Guta region appears as follows.
Aware of the imminent approach of the enemy, the rebels resorted to military stratagem: after having armed missiles armed with chemical agents, when the attack by government forces began, they hurled them at this oasis, striking civilians, among whom were a high percentage of ethnic Kurds. It is also possible that the Islamists, having the means to do so, simply rounded up hundreds of people and poisoned them, pure and simple. After which they offered up their victims as sufferers from a chemical attack by the Syrian army.
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