Peskov: Threat of Chemical Weapons-Related Provocations in Syria Still Remains

MOSCOW-The threat of provocations related to use of chemical weapons in Syria still remains, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Monday, adding that terrorists might possess toxic substances.

“There was repeated information about possible provocations with usage of toxic substances. And, of course, making it public was likely to help to avoid such provocations,” Peskov added, according to Sputnik.

The Syrian chemical weapons stocks were fully destroyed several years ago. This was confirmed by the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, the Kremlin spokesman said.

The OPCW announced in January 2016 that Syria’s weapons arsenal had been destroyed in accordance with an agreement reached after the 2013 Ghouta attack.

“However, it was repeatedly stressed that there were cases of use of chemical toxic substances in Iraq, including by terrorists, which means that terrorists might possess toxic substances. And so that is just what Putin was talking about — that the threat of new such provocations, unfortunately, is still quite obvious,” Peskov told reporters.

On Friday, Putin said at the International Economic Forum in Russia’s St. Petersburg (SPIEF) that Russia foiled planned chemical attacks’ reiteration on the Syrian territory by making public the intelligence data on the plot in early May. The Russia leader also refuted the reports of Syrian government having stockpiles of toxic substances, and people having allegedly suffered from the chemical weapons and called them a “provocation.”

H.M