Konflikten i Syrien

Moscow expects OPCW to send experts to Syria’s Khan Sheikhoun

MOSCOW, April 24. /TASS/. Moscow expects the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) to send its experts to the Syrian town of Khan Sheikhoun and the Shayrat airfield to probe the alleged chemical incident, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said on Monday.
‘We’ll be expecting that the OPCW will send its specialists after all to Khan Sheikhoun and Shayrat strictly on the basis of its mandate which requires ensuring the widest possible geographical representation of experts," the Russian foreign minister said.

"In order to make it sure that everything is transparent and is not shrouded into some secret from the member countries that pay for this mechanism to work," Lavrov said.

The OPCW should conduct a transparent and open investigation into the incident with the alleged use of chemical weapons in the Syrian city of Khan Shaykhun, EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, Federica Mogherini, said.

"The war in Syria is causing an extreme number of civilian causalities, but when it gets to the use of chemical weapons, chemical components during the war, then we are on a different stage of atrocities and we are at a level of what amounts to a war crime, if that is proven to be the case," she noted. "This is why the European position on that is that a full transparent investigation has to be done by the OPCW and full accountability has to be guaranteed within the UN appropriate system."


Lavrov said on Monday he has informed Federica Mogherini about Moscow’s efforts towards Syrian settlement:
"We spoke about the situation in the Middle East and North Africa, first of all in Syria. Both we and the European Union cannot but be worried about what is going on in Libya, Iraq, Yemen. We told our partners about Russia’s efforts towards promoting settlement of the Syrian crisis by means of an inclusive nationwide dialogue with an active use of the Astana process."

"We expressed support to the United Nations-brokered intra-Syrian consultations in Geneva that are to rely exclusively on United Nations Security Council Resolution 2254," Lavrov stressed.

US Sanctions Employees of Syrian Agency Allegedly Developing Chemical Weapons

“"We take Syria’s disregard for innocent human life very seriously, and will relentlessly pursue and shut down the financial networks of all individuals involved with the production of chemical weapons used to commit these atrocities," Mnuchin stated.”

So, a high level Israeli official has come out and said that ISIS once apologized to the Jews for attacking the IDF by accident. In doing this, he accidentally admitted that Israel and ISIS have a direct line of communication with each other. This is something neither group has ever admitted, but has been long assumed by “anti-Semitic” websites such as the one you are reading.

This is absolutely massive, as it shows, definitively, that Israel and ISIS are allies against the Assad regime.

Speaking about the wider Israeli policy of “neutrality” in Syria, former defense minister Moshe Ya’alon accidentally acknowledged that Israel has an open communications channel with an Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS/ISIL) cell which operates in Gollan Heights.

“There was one case recently where Daesh opened fire and apologized,” Ya’alon said on Saturday, as cited by the Times of Israel.

Izvestia: US requests Russia restore flight safety cooperation over Syrian skies

Washington has asked Moscow to resume cooperation on the previous flight safety mechanism to prevent incidents in the sky over Syria which Russia had suspended following the surprise US missile strike on Syria’s Shayrat airfield, three sources in Russia’s Foreign Ministry told Izvestia. Moscow had resumed the de-confliction channel on flight safety back on April 13, the day after US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson’s visit to Russia.

Politicians and experts believe that Washington was forced to take this step since any lack of coordination with Russia could result in negative consequences.
“Washington’s policy is pragmatic,” Igor Morozov, member of the Russian Federation Council’s (upper house of parliament) International Affairs Committee, told the paper. “The State Department understands well that the strategic initiative in Syria’s skies is in the hands of Russia’s Aerospace Forces. So, to avoid any unforeseen situations in the air, the US made such a request,” he explained. '

'Yuri Zinin, a leading researcher at the Center for Partnership of Civilizations of Moscow-based MGIMO University, said: “Washington instigated our reaction. Given that Syria’s sovereignty was violated, our steps may be called rather moderate. In particular, this could have resulted in the death of US advisers and troops in Syria.” By suspending the flight safety mechanism, Russia indicated that it won’t let the US take uncoordinated and unilateral decisions in Syria. Apparently, Washington has taken the hint.