WESTERN states and their allies were condemned for their continued claims that the Syrian government has used chemical weapons on its own people on Monday.

The Arab country’s permanent representative to the United Nations Bassam Sabbagh tore into allegations made by the US, Britain and France.

They claim that Syria is in violation of the 1993 Chemical Weapons Convention, although have presented little evidence to back their statements.

But Mr Sabbagh told the UN Security Council that such claims were baseless, with hostile countries showing they “are still adamant not to admit the truth” while seeking to politicise Syria’s chemical file.

Contrary to the claims, Damascus has fulfilled its commitment to the international arms control agreement which came into force in April 1997.

Syria joined in 2013 with the destruction of its chemical stockpile overseen by a joint mission of the UN and the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), which monitors compliance with the convention.

In January 2016, the OPCW declared that all of Syria’s declared and surrendered chemicals had been destroyed offshore.

Syria “vehemently opposes the use of chemical weapons under any circumstances, has voluntarily joined the Chemical Weapons Convention and fulfilled its obligations under the treaty,” Mr Sabbagh said.

Western countries have continued to claim his forces have used chemical weapons during the 10 year war that has ravaged the country.

In April 2018, Britain, France and the US used an alleged attack in Douma as the pretext for missile strikes that could have ignited a deadly global conflict.

Damascus denied using chemical weapons in Douma, with the alleged incident coming just as government forces regained the city from jihadist control.

The OPCW has been accused of manipulating its report into the alleged attack by hiding a dissenting report authored by senior engineer Ian Henderson.

He said that there was a high probability that cylinders were manually placed at two locations investigated by the OPCW team rather than being dropped from above by aircraft – the official narrative is that Syrian army helicopters were responsible.

And veteran journalist Robert Fisk cast further doubt on the claims of a chemical attack, with residents of Douma seemingly perplexed at reports of such an incident which allegedly left 43 people dead.

Health workers at a local hospital told him that patients were treated for the effects of dust inhalation, not chemical weapons with reports that the pseudo-humanitarian group the White Helmets had staged the event.

Footage recorded by the organisation went viral and paved the way for the missile strikes.