Washington in retaliation launched missile strikes on a Syrian air base it said was the starting point for the chemical weapons attack, a move that ratcheted up tensions between the United States and Syria's ally Russian Federation.
The Syrian government's suspected chemical weapons attack on civilians last week amounts to a "war crime", the US State Department said Thursday.
Assad further stated that "we don't know" if the victims depicted in the videos of the attack are "dead at all". "No investigations, no concrete evidence about anything, the only thing were allegations and propaganda and then strike".
In the interview, Assad insisted it was "not clear" whether an attack on Khan Sheikhun had even happened.
Britain's Ambassador, Sir Geoffrey Adams, told the meeting that United Kingdom scientists have analyzed samples from Khan Shaykhun and they "tested positive for the nerve agent sarin, or a sarin-like substance".
CNN reporters point out that their news organization actually interviewed victims, and the news organization and many others also report that USA military and intelligence officials intercepted communications implicating the Syrian military ahead of the attack.
He added he would only allow an investigation into the attack "when we make sure that unbiased countries will participate in this delegation in order to make sure that they won't use it for politicised purposes".
As BBC pointed out, the situation in Syria remains highly volatile, with Russian and Iran, another one of Assad's few military backers, threatening retaliation if the us launches more air strikes against the Syrian government.
Prime Minister Theresa May says she believes it is "highly likely" Mr Assad's forces were behind the deaths, adding that "it is only the regime that has the capability to make such an attack".
USA drops 'mother of all bombs' on ISIS caves in Afghanistan
The bomb never has been used in combat. "Must be more aggressive against ISIL everywhere - including Afghanistan."-( CNN ). White House press secretary Sean Spicer said of the strike: "The GBU is a large, powerful and accurately delivered weapon.
"It's stage one, the play [they staged] that we saw on social network and TVs, then propaganda and then stage two, the military attack", he said, questioning the authenticity of the video footage.
Assad said no proper investigation had been possible because the area was controlled by Nusra Front.
Shortly after, under pressure from the West, Syria agreed to a Russian proposal to give up control of its chemical weapons.
President Assad's denials must contend with the fact that samples from some of the victims were analysed in Turkey and the results indicated a Sarin-like agent was used.
In Moscow, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said Thursday that OPCW inspectors should visit both the Syrian air base, which the US said served as a platform for the attack, and Khan Sheikhoun to get a full and objective picture.
US -backed Syrian Kurdish forces say they have entered the fourth stage of their campaign to capture the Islamic State group's de facto capital Raqqa with an advance on the militants in a valley north of the city.
"Frankly, it's a tactic we've seen on Russia's part as well in the past", Toner told a daily press briefing.
"Things will work out fine between the United States of America and Russia", Trump said in a tweet.





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