Syria happy with India’s ‘balanced’ stand on crisis: Riad Abbas, Syrian ambassador to India

“We are relaxed and happy with India’s stand from the beginning of the Syrian crisis,” Riad Abbas, ambassador of the Syrian Arab Republic in India, said at a press conference here on Monday. “India’s stand has been the same throughout the crisis. I will meet Indian officials in a day or two and brief them on what happened in Khan Sheikhoun.”

Abbas said that Syria “appreciated” the support of allies Russia, Iran, and that India’s stand was “balanced” as other BRICS nations.

On April 4, a chemical attack on Khan Sheikhoun, a town in Idlib province, in north-west Syria, killed about 89 people and injured more than 300. Following the attack, on April 6, the United States carried out a missile attack on a Syrian air base suspected to house chemical weapons.

Washington has accused the Bashar al-Assad government of carrying out the attacks. The Syrian government, and its allies Russia and Iran, have demanded that an independent investigation into the matter.

Abbas said the bombing was an act of “blatant aggression” and chemical weapons was a “pretext” used by “Washington, Tel Aviv, Riyadh, Doha, Ankara, London, Paris” to internationalise the Syrian crisis which was until now a regional issue.

He said that it was a “well known” fact that chemical weapons were stored in many parts of Syria by armed terrorist groups, and that “even if we had such weapons, why would we use it on innocent civilians.”

The ambassador accused United States President Donald Trump of carrying out a “premeditated strike on Syria” based on the reports provided by terror groups. Abbas also said that Trump carried out the attacks to show Americans that he was a strong President, unlike Barack Obama; to compensate for Obama’s lack of cooperation with Israel; and, to send a message to Russia and its allies that America was ready to take them on in Syria.