The threat of provocations related to use of chemical weapons in Syria still remains, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Monday, adding that terrorists might possess toxic substances.
“There was repeated information about possible provocations with usage of toxic substances. And, of course, making it public was likely to help to avoid such provocations,” Peskov added.
The Kremlin spokesman pointed out that Russian President Vladimir Putin and then-US leader Barack Obama agreed in 2013 to work together to liquidate stockpiles of chemical weapons in Syria, and it was stated by the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) that Syria’s chemical reserves were destroyed.
“However, it was repeatedly stressed that there were cases of use of chemical toxic substances in Iraq, including by terrorists, which means that terrorists might possess toxic substances. And so that is just what Putin was talking about — that the threat of new such provocations, unfortunately, is still quite obvious,” Peskov told reporters.
On Friday, Putin said at the International Economic Forum in Russia’s St. Petersburg (SPIEF) that Russia foiled planned chemical attacks’ reiteration on the Syrian territory by making public the intelligence data on the plot in early May. The Russia leader also refuted the reports of Syrian President Bashar Assad having stockpiles of toxic substances, and people having allegedly suffered from the chemical weapons and called them a “provocation.”