Zarif: time to stop hype and cover-ups

EghtesadOnline: Iranian foreign minister Mohammad Javad Zarif condemned the U.S. airstrike against a Syrian airbase, calling it a military act based on groundless accusations.

News ID: ۷۴۰۸۱۹

08 April 2017

In a twitter message, Zarif said: “As the only recent victim of mass use of chemical weapons by Saddam in the 80s, Iran condemns use of all WMD by anyone against anyone".

“US aids Saddam’s use of CW against Iran in 80s; then resorts to military force over bogus CW allegations: 1st in 2003 and now in Syria,” ISNA quoted him as saying.

“Not even two decades after 9/11, U.S. military fighting on same side as al-Qaida and ISIS in Yemen and Syria. Time to stop hype and cover-ups,” he continued.

The U.S. launched cruise missiles at the Shayrat airfield from which President Donald Trump claimed a chemical weapons attack had been launched.

The airstrike is the first direct U.S. assault on the government of Bashar al-Assad in six years of civil war.

Earlier on Thursday, Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Muallem said the country’s armed forces "did not and will not" use chemical weapons, even against extremist groups.