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A TV news interview with a former army officer was cut short after he was asked about the alleged chemical attack in Syria.

Viewers were left baffled when Major General Jonathan Shaw, a former assistant chief of Defence staff, was stopped mid-answer, as he was questioning why the Assad regime would launch such an attack.

The interview followed a press conference with Russian Ambassador Alexander Yakovenko, which had run longer than expected.

General Shaw said: “The debate that seems to be missing from this is - and this was actually mentioned by the ambassador - was what possible motive would have triggered Syria to launch a chemical attack at this time in this place?

“You know, the Syrians are winning. Don’t take my word for it. Take the American military’s word. General Vergel, the head of Centcom [sic - The commander of Centcom is General Joseph L. Votel] - he said to congress the other day, Assad has won this war, and we need to face that.

“Then you’ve got last week the statement by Trump - or tweet by Trump - that America has finished with ISIL and we were going to pull out soon, very soon.

“And then suddenly…”

But General Shaw was cut off by the host, who apologised for having kept him waiting, but said they had run out of time.

Many viewers saw the awkwardly cut short interview as a sign General Shaw was being censored for questioning the idea that the Assad regime launched the attack.

But the Mirror understands the interview was cut short because of an unfortunate scheduling clash, and the overrunning of the press conference.

The channel had a ‘hard’ ad break scheduled for 2.27pm - after which they were due to show a half-hour segment with host Dermot Murnaghan interviewing Russia’s foreign affairs spokesperson Maria Zakharova.