Sir, – The press secretary at the Russian embassy declares the chemical attack in Douma is "fake news' and that "Russian military experts and the Syrian Red Crescent" have "not seen any evidence of a chemical attack" (April 12th). However, the independent World Health Organisation was quite unequivocal, saying it was alarmed by evidence of a chemical attack and that 500 patients had presented with "signs and symptoms consistent with exposure to toxic chemicals". More telling, however, was Russia's veto of a UN Security Council resolution to carry out an independent investigation of the chemical attack.
It is misleading to state that Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov called on the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) to send experts immediately to Douma when Russia only a few weeks ago also vetoed in the Security Council the extension of the investigative work by the OPCW with the UN in Syria. That veto was prompted by the latter’s findings that the Assad regime was responsible for the Khan Sheikoun sarin gas attack, as well as several chlorine gas attacks.
The shameful criticism of the outstanding humanitarian organisations like the Syrian American Medical Society and the Syrian Civil Defence (‘White Helmets”) is unsurprising because while their members and those they support show incredible courage saving so many civilians under unimaginably hellish fire, including chemical attacks, they also are primary witnesses of the war crimes and crimes against humanity which the Assad regime, with Russia and Iran, carry out on a virtual daily basis. – Yours, etc,
RONAN L TYNAN,
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East Wall,
Dublin 3.
Sir, – The US, the UK and France now want to launch a massive war on Syria based on an allegation that the Syrian government was responsible for a gas attack on civilians.
I was one of those that organised a major demonstration in Dublin in 2003 against the war on Iraq on the grounds that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction, which we now know to be a lie.
This war that the US, France and the UK are so keen on, unlike their wars on Iraq and Libya, could escalate into a world war, in which not just the Syrians, but all of humanity would die. – Yours, etc,
ROGER COLE,
Chairman,
Peace & Neutrality Alliance,
Dalkey Business Centre,
Castle Street,
Dalkey, Co Dublin.