London, UK — An interview between Sky News anchor Samantha Washington and former British Armed Forces assistant chief Jonathan Shaw lasted less than 60 seconds after Shaw was asked whether the British parliament should move forward in intervention in Syria, and replied by questioning the logic of Assad launching chemical attacks in Douma.
Shaw, who served as the commander of the British Armed Forces in Iraq, questioned “what possible motive could have triggered Syria to launch this chemical attack at this time in this place.”
“You know, quite apart from all that, the part that seems to be missing from this—and this was actually mentioned by the ambassador—is what possible motive might have triggered Syria to launch a chemical attack at this time in this place?” Shaw said.
“You know, the Syrians are winning. And don’t take my word for it – take the American military’s word for it. General Votel – the head of CENTCOM – said to Congress the other day that ‘Assad has won this war and we need to face that.’ And then you got last week the statement by Trump that America had finished with ISIL and that we were going to pull out soon,” Shaw said.
He went on by saying “and then suddenly you get-” only to be quickly interrupted by presenter Samantha Washington who apologized for having “to leave it there.”
Speaking exclusively later on to The Daily Mail, Shaw added:
The jihadists and the various opposition groups who’ve been fighting against Assad have much greater motivation to launch a chemical weapons attack and make it look like Assad was responsible…
Their motivation being that they want to keep the Americans involved in the war – following Trump saying the US was going to leave Syria for other people to sort out.
Russia has officially claimed the alleged chemical weapons attack in Douma was a planned provocation organized by the British security services and certain Syrian opposition NGOs, including the White Helmets. The UN’s Organization for Prohibited Chemical Weapons has inspectors in Syria until Wednesday inspecting the area with a preliminary report due before leaving.
Watch the full interview below: