Dmitri Sablin, representing the governing United Russia party in parliament, stated that the US-UK-French missile strike on Syria hadn't scared away President Bashar Assad from his country. After meeting with him in Damascus, he revealed what Assad really did following the attack.
“Our meeting is another confirmation that the Western media permanently lie about Syria. They stated that Assad with his family has fled to Iran, leaving his country behind. He is in Damascus, he is working,” stated Sablin.
On April 10 some media outlets reported that Assad and his family ran to the Iranian capital Tehran, fearing additional military actions by the US-led coalition against Syria.
Sablin was among the members of the Russian parliament and other officials from Moscow, who met President Bashar Assad in the wake of the joint US-UK-French missile strike on Syria.
READ MORE: Assad to Russian MPs: Syrians 'No Longer Afraid of NATO' After Missile Attack
Assad would continue Syria's independent development "despite the agenda, imposed by the West," Sablin said. Assad also stated that the airstrikes have not only "consolidated the peoples of Russia and Syria, but all the nations, which are guided by the norms of international law."
Following an overnight bombing, the Syrian president, who was reported to have arrived at his workplace that same day, said that the strikes came as the West realized that it had lost control of the situation in the Arab Republic.
On April 14, France, the United Kingdom, and the United States launched strikes on a number of targets in Syria in response to an alleged chemical attack in Douma, Syria. The Syrian leadership, in its turn, denied any involvement in the attack and invited the experts from the OPCW to investigate the reports.
The coalition forces launched over 100 missiles in Syria, most of which were shot down by Syrian air defense systems.
The OPCW press service said that the organization's mission had arrived in Damascus. A Syrian government source told Russian reporters that OPCW experts were planning to start their activities in the Syrian area of Eastern Ghouta, where a chemical attack allegedly took place.