"The Organisation for the Prohibition for Chemical Weapons (OPCW) recently received an offer from Russian authorities to provide some samples and other material in relation to an incident of alleged use of chemicals as weapons in Aleppo. These samples and other material may be of use in the ongoing work of the OPCW Fact-Finding Mission," the organization said in a statement.
On Tuesday, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said that Moscow is considering the possibility of delivering independently gathered toxic substances used by militants in Aleppo to The Hague for analysis. 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.
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.
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.
