Russia May Deliver Samples of Toxic Substances Used by Aleppo Militants to OPCW

Russia is considering the possibility of delivering independently gathered toxic substances used by militants in Aleppo to The Hague for analysis, Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said Tuesday.

MINSK (Sputnik) — Earlier this month, the Russian Defense Ministry said that samples taken in Syria's city of Aleppo prove that militants used chlorine gas in their attacks.

"We are now working on the possibility to independently deliver collected samples to The Hague to the OPCW [Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons]," Lavrov told reporters.

He noted that the collected samples left "no doubt" that the toxic substances were used by militants from eastern Aleppo. The Russian diplomat added that OPCW experts were requested to visit Aleppo to verify the information.

"Unfortunately, the organization's leadership refused to do it citing security concerns, apparently under pressure from our Western colleagues," Lavrov stressed.

Despite numerous reports of militants' use of chemical weapons, the OPCW-UN Joint Investigative Mechanism (JIM) expert panel recently released the fourth report, which, in particular, claimed that the government of Syrian President Bashar Assad had used chemical weapons at least three times in the country throughout 2014-2015. On Saturday, the Russian Foreign Ministry expressed regret over the OPCW decision.