Moscow renews call for holding unbiased probe into chemical weapons use in Khan Sheikhoun

Moscow – Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov stressed “the need to hold a highly professional, unbiased and de-politicized investigation” into the use of chemical weapons in Khan Sheikhoun in Idleb on April 2017 and Maartet Um al-Housh village in Aleppo countryside on September 2016.

The Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement that Ryabkov met with Head of the OPCW-UN Joint Investigative Mechanism (JIM) in Syria Edmond Mulet in Moscow on Thursday, stressing “the need to hold a highly professional, unbiased and de-politicized investigation into this episode and other” cases of Poisonous material use in Syria, SANA reported.

 “The Russian side is convinced that one of the integral elements of this effort should be a visit by JIM experts to the city of Khan Shaykhun (the site of the April 4 chemical incident) and the Shayrat air base, where sarin, used in Khan Shaykhun, was allegedly stored,” the statement said.