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Al-Ahed Telegram

Al-Assad: White Helmets Part of Al-Qaeda

Al-Assad: White Helmets Part of Al-Qaeda
folder_openSyria access_time7 years ago
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Local Editor

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad hit out at the controversial nonprofit White Helmets, calling it a front for terrorism, and saying they are an example of Western narratives grotesquely distorting the truth about the conflict in the country.

Al-Assad: White Helmets Part of Al-Qaeda

"White Helmets are al-Qaeda members and that's proven on the net," Assad told RT during an interview with Russian journalists in Damascus.

"The same members are killing or executing or celebrating over dead bodies, at the same time they are humanitarian heroes, and now they have an Oscar."

The White Helmets, which calls itself a ‘civil defense organization,' operates in militant-controlled parts of Syria, where they say they are involved exclusively in peaceful activities such as rescuing civilians after bombing raids. They are part-funded by donations, and by Western governments.

An eponymous British-made film about their work was given an Oscar for Best Documentary at last month's Academy Awards.

Both Damascus and Moscow repeatedly accused them of functioning as a propaganda operation that stages videos and manipulates coverage to generate sympathy abroad for militancy, and as an extremist rescue service that operates in tandem with al-Nusra and other extremist groups in Syria.

Al-Assad said that the unquestioning lionization of the White Helmets is symptomatic of the West's "double standards," in which heroes and villains are decided on the basis of "narratives."

"For example, their raids against Daesh in Mosul in Iraq were something good, or let's say, positive, while the same raid by the Syrian and Russian army airplanes or troops on the ground in Aleppo to liberate the people of Aleppo is against human rights, according to their political discourse," al-Assad added.

The Syrian president further noted that, as the conflict in the country marks its sixth anniversary, the West's "own public doesn't believe the [government] narrative anymore."

Source: RT, Edited by website team

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