05-05-2018 | 08:18
The US State Department’s support for the White Helmets operating in Syria is “under active review,” a CBS News report said.
The group reportedly hasn’t received funding in weeks, but neither has it received formal confirmation that Washington’s financial assistance has come to a complete halt. This would mean a significant blow for the group, as the US money accounts for about one-third of the controversial group’s overall funding.
An internal State Department document cited by CBS said that its Near East Bureau needed confirmation from US President Donald Trump’s administration by April 15 in order to approve funding for the White Helmets. If that wasn’t received, the department would initiate “shut-down procedures on a rolling basis.”
The report comes amid major controversy surrounding the White Helmets, after residents of Douma, Syria, testified in The Hague at the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons [OPCW]. The hearing centered on the alleged chemical attack that was used as a justification for the April 14 strikes by the US, Britain, and France.
In a press conference following the hearing, hospital staff and 11-year-old Hassan Diab – who is seen in troubling White Helmets footage following the alleged attack – said there was no sign of a chemical incident at the time and that the White Helmets’ video with children was apparently staged.
The footage, which showed Diab and other children being hosed down with water, was the only publicly available “evidence” that the attack ever took place.
Still, Trump and his British and French counterparts deemed it sufficient proof to launch over 100 missiles on Syria on April 14, claiming that Syrian President Bashar Assad was behind the alleged attack.
The three allies were so keen to bomb Syria that they refused to wait for the results of an OPCW investigation before doing so.
Although the White Helmets says it acts solely as a makeshift emergency response team in a time of crisis, claiming to have heroically saved more than 70,000 lives in war-torn Syria, others disagree with its motives.
Footage from Syria repeatedly showed members of the White Helmets assisting terrorist groups, while multiple accounts from civilians suggested they only helped “their own” and used civilians caught in the battle only for publicity.
Source: News Agencies, Edited by website team
US Department Of State Cuts Off Funding For Syria’s White Helmets
The US State Department freezed financing the White Helmets, which had been working in war-torn Syria, the US TV channel CBS reported on May 3.
According to CBS, the US government accounted for about a third of the overall funding of White Helmets. CBS stressed that “the US State Department said the support is ‘under active review,’” adding that the organization had not been receiving financial funds from Washington for several weeks already.
The leader of White Helmets Raed Saleh stated that there had been no signs of stopping the financing two months ago during the visit of the organization’s members to the US, CBS reported.
“Our meetings in March were very positive. There were even remarks from senior officials about long-term commitments even into 2020,” Saleh said.“There were no suggestions whatsoever about stopping support.”“Ultimately, this will negatively impact the humanitarian workers ability to save lives,” claimed the White Helmets official quoted by CBS.
CBS reported that the internal State Department document had said that its Near East Bureau had needed confirmation from the administration to green light funding for the White Helmets in Syria by April 15 or the department would initiate “shut-down procedures on a rolling basis.” CBS stated that it had inquired, which programs had been still receiving funding and the date of its freezing, but the US State Department did not respond.
The fact over the freezing of the White Helmets seems to be interesting as this organization was one of the first to make allegations that there was a chemical weapon attack carried out by the Syrian government in Douma on April 7. Russia dismissed that as fake news. On April 9, the Russian Center for the Reconciliation of the Warring Sides examined Douma to find no traces of chemical weapons.
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Breaking News: US ‘Freezes Funding’ for White Helmets after Douma Chemical Attack Allegations Fall Apart - News Paper
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