Moscow:

Russia’s OPCW mandate stance rests on Khan Sheikhoun report

TEHRAN (defapress) – Russia’s Foreign Ministry stressed that Moscow attitude towards extending the mandate of the OPCW-UN Joint Investigative Mechanism (JIM) investigating the use of chemical weapons in Syria depends on the quality of investigative report on Khan Sheikhoun incident on April 4th.

News ID: 66648

Date: 24 October 2017 - 11:41

In a statement issued on Monday, the Ministry added that the US insists that the UN Security Council should immediately adopt a resolution in this regard, and moreover it seriously distorts the Russian stance claiming that Moscow will block the JIM’s mandate extension if the results oppose Syria’s interest.

The Russian Foreign Ministry refuted those statements as groundless, adding that Washington’s intention to extend the JIM’s mandate seems strange.

Earlier, Director of Russian International Ministry’s Non-Proliferation and Arms Management Division, Mikhail Ulyanov, described the joint OPCW-UN investigation conducted about the use of chemical weapons in Syria as "unprofessional and raises questions” as the experts refused to gather ground samples from al-Shayrat airbase to be analyzed.

He added that Moscow will take its decision on extending JIM’s mandate after the latter publishes its report on October 26th.

The mandate of the OPCW-UN Joint Investigative Mechanism (JIM) ends on December 16th.