Syrian President Bashar Assad is simply not mad enough to have carried out the recent chemical attack on a rebel-held town in Syria, according to outspoken former MP George Galloway.
Writing for the ‘Westmonster’ website, the former Labour and Respect MP said the idea that Assad was behind the recent suspected chemical attack at Sheikoun Khan was off the mark.
Major Western powers laid the attack at Assad’s door and leading figures have said Russia is tacitly responsible as well.
Syria maintains that the gas incident occurred after a conventional bomb hit a rebel chemical weapons depot.
“Syrian President Assad is no doubt bad enough to do anything at all to save his regime including the use of any and all weapons,” Galloway writes.
“But he’s not mad enough to launch militarily insignificant chemical weapons attacks on an already beaten enemy and, hey presto, bring America directly into the war against him.
“Anyone who says otherwise is either a fool or is trying to fool you,” Galloway warned.
Galloway urged readers to ask who would gain from such an attack.
“One only has to ask two questions. Why? And who benefits? That there is no conceivable advantage to the Syrian regime is obvious. That there is every conceivable advantage for the ISIS/Al-Qaeda-led rebels is equally obvious,” he said.
“A war which was all but won is now in question again. If the Saudi-inspired fanatics didn’t so disapprove of dancing well, they’d be dancing Gay Gordons and Strathspeys Reels [Scottish dances] in the roads of Raqqa.”
Galloway also warned that the press had not played an even hand in their coverage of the incident, relying on dubious “unofficial sources.”
Referring to US President Donald Trump’s claim that images of suffering children had inspired his U-turn from opposing war in Syria to bombing a regime airbase, Galloway said, “I too have ‘beautiful babies’ Mr. Trump, four of them under 10. I will not see them go quietly into your goodnight.
“Rather I will rage against the dying of the light. And ask as many to rage with me as I can.
“And now, my double-decker campaign bus has arrived and my microphone awaits,” Galloway added with a characteristic flourish.
Galloway, who hosts RT’s Sputnik program, is campaigning for the parliamentary seat of Manchester Gorton in an upcoming by-election.