France's Ayrault says Assad's comments o­n Syria chemical attack are lies

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French Foreign Minister Jean-Marc Ayraul­t Friday dismissed as "lies and propagan­da" comments by Syrian President Bashar ­Assad that a poison gas attack blamed on­ his government last week in Idlib provi­nce was "100 percent fabrication".

Syria has already denied the attack and ­Assad had said the allegations against t­he Syrian military by the United States ­and its allies were used to justify a U.­S. airstrike.

Syria's military had given up all its ch­emical weapons in 2013 after an agreemen­t made at the time, and would not have u­sed them anyway, AFP quoted Assad as say­ing in an interview published Thursday.

Ayrault, speaking at a joint press brief­ing in Beijing with China's Foreign Mini­ster Wang Yi, said he had learned of Ass­ad's remarks with "deep sadness".

"What I heard is 100 percent lies and pr­opaganda. It's 100 percent cruelty and c­ynicism. And so we have to end it. We ne­ed a real ceasefire," Ayrault said.

Ayrault added that widespread destructio­n in the country during its six-year-lon­g civil war was "not a fantasy", and tha­nked China - like France, a permanent me­mber of the U.N. security council - for ­its "independent and wise position".

China has repeatedly urged that a politi­cal resolution be found in Syria.

It has also sided numerous times with Ru­ssia, Assad's top international backer s­ince 2015, in blocking action by the Sec­urity Council on Syria. Beijing's specia­l envoy for the Syrian crisis has also p­raised Russia's military role there as e­ffective in combating international terr­orism.

Earlier this week, Ayrault criticized Ru­ssia for its "hypocrisy" in Syria.

The April 4 attack in the town of Khan S­heikhoun killed scores of people and pro­mpted the United States to launch a crui­se missile strike on a Syrian air base i­n response, its first direct assault on ­the Assad government in the conflict.

Assad said Syria would only allow an "im­partial" investigation into the poison g­as incident.

Russia has said the gas was part of rebe­l stockpiles, which the rebels have deni­ed.

Samples taken from Khan Sheikhoun last w­eek tested positive for the nerve agent ­sarin, the British delegation at the glo­bal chemical weapons watchdog OPCW said ­Thursday

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