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Daesh most likely using chemical weapons in Syria: Russia

Tuesday, 05 January 2016 2:09 PM [ Last Update: Tuesday, 05 January 2016 3:18 PM ]

A file photo taken on January 13, 2014 shows people being treated at a field hospital after a poison gas attack by foreign-backed militants in suburban Damascus. (AFP photo)

A senior Russian diplomat says it is highly likely that the Daesh Takfiri terrorists are using chemical weapons in Syria, state media report.

According to a Tuesday report by RIA news agency, the comments were made by Mikhail Ulyanov, the head of the Russian Foreign Ministry’s department for non-proliferation and arms control.

He said an investigation must be launched into claims that Turkey sends possible supplies of sarin components to Syria, citing proof recently provided by a Turkish lawmaker.

Turkish lawmaker Eren Erdem of the opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) recently said Daesh terrorists in Syria were behind a 2013 chemical attack, and that they received materials required to produce the deadly sarin gas through Turkey.

Erdem renewed concerns about a possible cover-up of the issue following the sudden termination of a local criminal case in the Turkish city of Adana into illegal shipments of arms.

The deadly chemical attack, which occurred in the Damascus suburb of Ghouta in August 2013, was blamed by certain Western countries on the government of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. The Syrian government denied any role in the attack but still agreed to give up its arsenal of chemical weapons.

Malik Ellahi, the spokesman for the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), said on Tuesday that Syria's chemical arms arsenal has been completely destroyed.

The last remaining vestiges of the stockpile, which was consisted of some 75 cylinders of highly-corrosive hydrogen fluoride, were obliterated by the US firm Veolia at its treatment plant Port Arthur in Texas, the OPCW said.

The Turkish lawmaker added that the West deliberately blamed the Syrian government for the deadly chemical attack in Ghouta as part of its effort to justify threats of US military intervention in Syria.

Back in December 2015, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova called for an international investigation into the deadly chemical attack in Syria, while taking into account the statements by the Turkish lawmaker.

Pointing to Erdem’s effort to shed more light into the muted scandal, Zakharova said there was nothing striking in his revelations.

She recalled that in 2013, a number of sources, including Turks, had reported the detention of suspects in deliveries of chemical components and sarin precursors across the Turkish border.

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