Stephen Lendman

In response to Tuesday’s Khan Sheikhoun CW attack, Moscow rejected the US/UK/French draft resolution, calling it “unacceptable.”

No vote was taken, whether coming is unknown. It was introduced to wrongfully blame Assad for Tuesday’s attack, despite no evidence suggesting it - or any other CW incident throughout over six years of Obama’s war.

It’s now Trump’s, naked US-led aggression against a sovereign independent country, using imported terrorists as imperial foot soldiers, supported by terror-bombing, destroying vital infrastructure, massacring civilians - headed for escalation, not resolution.

Russia remains committed to combating terrorism and supporting Syria’s sovereign independence, backing its liberating struggle, Putin spokesman Dmitry Peskov explained.

During a Thursday news conference, Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Muallem blasted erroneous claims about his government’s responsibility for Tuesday’s CW attack.

It’s combating terrorism to protect its people, not harm them, never using CWs or other banned weapons.

Attending the EU’s April 4 and 5 Brussels conference on Syria’s future, Deputy Russian Foreign Minister Gennady Gatilov explained most officials attending “spoke in favor of a political solution…agreeing that there is no military solution.”

Tuesday’s CW attack complicates things, US-led NATO heading for escalated conflict, instead of resolve to end it.

On Wednesday, Russia submitted a responsible draft resolution, criticizing the “unacceptable” Western one.

Its acting UN envoy Pyotr Ilyichev, press secretary said in short draft form, it was “drawn up in a business manner and aimed at conducting a true investigation rather than to appoint the guilty ones until the facts are established,” adding discussion aims to agree on “a compromise resolution.”

Russia’s draft calls for the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) to “fully investigate the reports about the incident on the ground under the mandatory condition that the list of investigators will be submitted to the UN for approval and will be geographically balanced as well.”

“A demand should be added here that the illegal armed groups controlling the area of the incident should ensure full and unhindered access to the area and to the required information for investigators.”

On Thursday, Vladimir Putin slammed Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu for making “groundless” accusations about Tuesday’s incident.

A Kremlin statement said Russia’s President “highlighted that it was unacceptable to make groundless accusations against anyone without conducting a detailed and unbiased investigation.”

The damage was already done. Fabricated accusations make headlines, evidence refuting them ignored. Escalated conflict in some form looks certain.

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Stephen Lendman lives in Chicago. He can be reached at lendmanstephen@sbcglobal.net.

His new book as editor and contributor is titled "Flashpoint in Ukraine: How the US Drive for Hegemony Risks WW III."

http://www.claritypress.com/LendmanIII.html

Visit his blog site at http://www.sjlendman.blogspot.com.

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