Terrorists of So-called “Islamic State” have Access to Chemical Warfare Agents Production- Russian Foreign Ministry

MOSCOW-The Russian Foreign Ministry has stressed that the terrorists of the so-called “Islamic States” have become able to produce chemical weapons and asserted the need to investigate cases of using such weapons in Syria and Iraq by the terrorists.

Director of the Russian Foreign Ministry’s Department for non-proliferation and arms control Mikhail Ulyanov told Itar Tass on Thursday that the terrorist organization calling itself the Islamic State of Iraq and Levant (ISIL) has taken possession of production of chemical warfare agents.

Ulyanov called for investigating the use of chemical warfare agents in Syria and Iraq by ISIL terrorists.

“There are facts against the ISIL on the use of real chemical weapons – mustard agent, and possibly, lewisite the production of which demands use of rather complex technologies,” Ulyanov told the Russian news agency.

All data show that the ISIL terrorist group has indeed gained access to technologies of manufacturing chemical weapons, Ulyanov said. “A lot of facts of use of chemical weapons on the territory of Syria and Iraq by the ISIL gunmen have been already registered,” he said.

The diplomat said he regrets that the UN Security Council has not so far condemned these facts “first of all due to the position of our Western partners.” Russia has repeatedly insisted on the respective response.

The mandate of the joint activity of the UN and the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) on investigating the cases of the suspected use of chemical weapons in Syria could be extended for the territory of Iraq, he said.

“There has been no decision in this regard yet, but we have already prepared and put the draft resolution on the UN Security Council’s table several weeks ago,” he said.

H.M