Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of reports of jihadist groups in Idlib filming and preparing statements to prove a chemical attack on the inhabitants of the city has taken place.
These reports, produced by the Russian Ministry of Defence, fit into a wider Russian disinformation campaign which includes absurd and baseless insinuations about the UK. The campaign is a desperate attempt to deflect attention from the appalling crimes of the Asad regime, including its documented and repeated use of chemical weapons. We are clear that this Russian disinformation campaign is designed to distort, distract and confuse the facts. In the last couple of years, the Syrian regime and its Russian backers have repeatedly hidden behind the rationale of confronting terrorism to launch brutal, indiscriminate campaigns, killing countless children and civilians in the process. If they do the same in Idlib, they will cause a human disaster that could leave thousands dead and many more homeless.