Russia denies Assad to blame for chemical attack, set to collide with Trump
Moscow/Beirut — On Wednesday, Russia denied that Syrian President Bashar al-Assad was to blame for a poison gas attack and said it would continue to back him, setting the Kremlin on course for its biggest diplomatic collision yet with Donald Trump’s White House. Western countries, including the US, blamed Assad’s armed forces for a chemical attack that choked scores of people to death in the town of Khan Sheikhoun in a rebel-held area of northern Syria on Tuesday. Washington said it believed the deaths were caused by sarin nerve gas dropped by Syrian aircraft, but Moscow offered an alternative explanation that would shield Assad: the poison gas belonged to rebels and had leaked from an insurgent weapons depot hit by Syrian bombs. The US, Britain and France have proposed a draft UN Security Council resolution that would pin the blame on Damascus. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Russia would argue its case blaming the rebels at the UN. "Russia and its armed forces will continue t...
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