Syrian Permanent Representative to the United Nations, Bashar al-Jaafari said Western states have raised the issue of chemical weapons use in Syria as a pressure tactic against the country to get concessions

Syrian Permanent Representative to the United Nations, Bashar al-Jaafari said Western states have raised the issue of chemical weapons use in Syria as a pressure tactic against the country to get concessions.

In an interview with the Lebanese NBN TV channel broadcast on Sunday, Jaafari said that the UN Security Council is the only authority vested with the power to impose a no-fly zone over any given world state, and stressed that the UN body may not ratify a no-fly zone over Syria.

He stated that Syria requested to the UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon to help investigate the alleged use of chemical weapons in the town of Khan al-Assal in Aleppo, but when the Security Council met to discuss this issue, French and British ambassadors made unsubstantiated claims that chemical weapons were used in Homs four months before the Aleppo incident.

US, Israeli and British officials have said there’s evidence that the Syrian government may have used chemical weapons in its fight against foreign-backed militants.

Syria has dismissed the allegations as false and fabricated. Information Minister Omran al-Zoubi said Damascus wants an investigation into the alleged use of chemical weapons to be carried out by Russian experts.

A spokesman for the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), which is based in The Hague, said what Israeli and Western officials refer to as evidence does not meet the standard of proof needed for the UN.