Alleged Chemical Attack in Syria: Russia blames Britain

Russia yesterday said it has proof that an alleged chemical weapons attack in Syria's Eastern Ghouta was staged on orders from London.

Russia also warned the West against any "dangerous" moves on Syria as its rivals hesitated over possible strikes on the country which Moscow has warned could lead to "war".

Russian defence ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov said the military had "proof that testifies to the direct participation of Britain in the organising of this provocation in Eastern Ghouta."

He said Britain had told the White Helmets, who act as first responders in rebel-held areas, to fake the suspected chemical attack in the town of Douma.

London put "powerful pressure" on the civil defence organisation, Konashenkov said.

He said the attack was staged on April 7 to coincide with military action by Syrian government forces, after the rebel group Jaish al-Islam that long controlled Eastern Ghouta carried out shelling of Damascus from April 3 to 6.

Russia has repeatedly accused rebels of staging or spreading rumours of chemical attacks, but the involvement of Britain is a new claim.

It comes as London has blamed Moscow for a nerve agent attack on a former double agent and his daughter in the English city of Salisbury last month.

In March Russia's General Staff said that rebels were planning a "provocation" in Eastern Ghouta with women and children set to play victims of a chemical attack.

President Vladimir Putin later referred to this claim, saying on April 4 that Russia had "irrefutable proof" that rebels were planning an attack with "poisonous substances".

Meanwhile the UN Security Council met again yesterday, at Russia's request, to try to defuse the standoff.

US President Donald Trump appeared to back away from earlier threats of imminent action and France's Emmanuel Macron yesterday called for stepped-up talks with Moscow.

But at UN, French Ambassador Francois Delattre warned that Syria's government had reached a "point of no return" by using chemical weapons and vowed to confront the "intolerable threat" of such attacks to global security.

Russia repeated its warnings against an escalation.

"The most important thing is to refrain from ill-considered and dangerous actions that would constitute a gross violation of the UN Charter and would have unpredictable consequences," Putin's office said in a statement after he and French President Emmanuel Macron spoke by telephone.

After a meeting with national security advisors Thursday, the White House said it had not yet decided how to respond to last week's suspected chemical attack which the US, France and Britain blame on Bashar al-Assad's regime.

Macron told Putin he wanted to "intensify" talks in order to "bring peace and stability to Syria", the French President's office said in a statement.

A White House briefing on a call between Trump and British Prime Minister Theresa May said that they "continued their discussion of the need for a joint response to Syria's use of chemical weapons".

But US Defence Secretary Jim Mattis struck a cautious note, telling lawmakers that the need to "stop the murder of innocent people" had to be weighed up against the risk of things "escalating out of control".

Macron claimed in a TV interview Thursday that he had "proof" that Assad's regime had used chemical weapons and vowed a response "in due course". But he also appeared anxious to avoid a wider conflict, saying France would "in no way allow an escalation".