Syria denounces French, U.S. chemical weapons accusations

DAMASCUS, Aug. 27 (Xinhua) -- Syria on Saturday denied U.S. and French allegations that the country used chemical weapons near Damascus in 2013.

The Syrian Foreign Ministry vehemently condemned recent statements from the French Foreign Ministry and the spokesperson of the U.S. National Security Council about Syrian government forces' involvement in chemical attacks on Syrian soil, calling them "false accusations and fabricated incidents."

Those pronouncements are deeply intertwined with a history of misinformation and deception, and were merely an attempt to divert attention away from the true culprits, the ministry said.

The ministry mentioned the 2013 incident in Eastern Ghouta region, east of Damascus, and accused France and the United States of attempting to shroud their own roles in the matter.

The United States and its Western allies have gone as far as supplying materials and chemical weapons that were reportedly used in various incidents across Syrian territories, said the ministry.