Syrian President Bashar al-Assad says that last Tuesday's chemical attack was not launched by his government. It is "100 percent fabrication," he said during an interview with Agence France-Presse, again insisting that his regime gave up all of its chemical weapons in 2013.
Intelligence says otherwise. Both U.S. Defense Secretary and James Mattis and Secretary of State Rex Tillerson have evidence which they say proves without a doubt that the Assad regime is the author of the chemical gas attack that killed nearly 100 Syrians and injured hundreds more.
This intel convinced President Trump that an airstrike was justified and he gave the go ahead for our military to drop 59 tomahawk missiles on the Syrian airfield believed to be the culprit. He is reportedly considering further military action. Assad is under the impression the U.S. doctored the videos of the chemical attack to justify a strike. He is willing to allow an investigation into the attack - with the following demands.
"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.
Mr Assad also said that he would only allow what he called an "impartial" investigation into the events at Khan Sheikhoun, to ensure it would not be used for "politicised purposes".