
U.S. President Donald Trump looks on following a swearing-in ceremony for Defense Secretary James Mattis at the Pentagon in Washington, U.S., January 27, 2017. REUTERS/Carlos Barria

By: Margaret Besheer & Peter Heinlein
Source: VOA News
Syria and Russia are again denying allegations Syrian warplanes dropped chemical bombs on a rebel-held town in northern Syria this week.
Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Moallem said Thursday in Damascus his country did not use such weapons during airstrikes on Khan Sheikhoun, and would never use them, “even against terrorists.”
The attack killed nearly 100 people and left more than 350 sickened, including untold numbers of children, sparking global moral outrage against Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and Russia, Syria’s biggest ally. Moallem repeated Russia’s explanation the airstrikes hit a rebel-controlled warehouse that was stockpiling chemical weapons.
The Kremlin said Russian President Vladimir Putin, in a phone call with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, “underlined that it’s unacceptable to make unfounded accusations against anyone until a thorough and unbiased international investigation” has been conducted.
But a Putin spokesman also said that Russia’s support for Assad is not unconditional.
Turkish Justice Minister Bekir Bozdag said in Ankara autopsy results on three Syrians killed in Tuesday’s attack show they died as a result of exposure to chemical weapons. The three were among at least 30 others who were sent to Turkey to receive treatment. Bozdag said the autopsies were conducted by officials from the World Health Organization late Wednesday in Adana.
Moallem demanded any investigation into the bombing not be politicized, and that it begin in Damascus, not Ankara.
At a White House news conference Wednesday with visiting Jordanian King Abdullah, U.S. President Donald Trump described the attack as an “affront to humanity that cannot be tolerated.” Asked whether he would consider a military response, the president was deliberately vague, saying, “I’m not saying I’m doing anything one way or another.”
King Abdullah said, “This is another testament to the failure of international diplomacy to find solutions to this crisis.”
Britain, France and the United States strongly condemned Russia Wednesday during an emergency session of the United Nations Security Council.
The fate of a draft U.N. resolution condemning the attack written by the three Western powers remains in limbo, as Russia’s envoy said at the emergency session he did not think the time was right for such action.
Expert analysis
When asked about the validity of Russia’s assertion that Syrian warplanes struck a facility housing chemical weapons possessed by rebel forces, American expert Craig Williams told VOA, “Anything is possible, though it strikes me as a bit far-fetched.”
Williams, an informal adviser to the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, a U.N. agency, says it is possible that Sarin gas stored in a building and hit by an airstrike using conventional weapons could be released.
“That could be one scenario, but it is not the most likely,” he said. “If Sarin was stored there and hit by a missile, it would most likely be consumed in the subsequent fireball, but if any Sarin molecules escaped and weren’t consumed in the explosion, then they would disperse. There are too many variables to take into account and I have no way of knowing from afar,” he added.
“I think the most likely cause is that an agent was dropped by regime warplanes,” he said.
Jeff Seldin, Jamie Dettmer, Richard Green contributed to this report.