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OPCW head gives no comment on origins of Salisbury chemical

The Director General of the OPCW refused to comment on the origins of the nerve agent used in the Salisbury incident
Director General of the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, Ahmet Uzumcu AP Photo/Peter Dejong
Director General of the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, Ahmet Uzumcu
© AP Photo/Peter Dejong

LONDON, May 25. /TASS/. Director General of the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), Ambassador Ahmet Uzumcu refused to comment on the origins of the nerve agent used in the Salisbury incident, according to London.

"We are not able to comment on the origins of the chemical agent which was used there (in Sal), not only because we have no mandate for this but we are not involved in the investigation which is being conduct by the British authorities," he said speaking at the Royal Institute of International Affairs (Chatham House think tank) on Friday.

"On the analysis of the samples collected by our experts in S[alisbury] - there is a procedure, strict one, which is followed by the designated laboratories as well as our laboratory," he added.

According to London, former Russian military intelligence officer Sergei Skripal, 66, who had been sentenced in Russia for spying for the UK, and his daughter Yulia, 33, were exposed to a nerve agent in the British city of Salisbury on March 4. Claiming that the substance used in the attack had been a Novichok-class nerve agent developed in the Soviet Union, London rushed to accuse Russia of being involved in the incident. Moscow rejected all of the United Kingdom’s accusations, saying that a program aimed at developing such a substance had existed neither in the Soviet Union nor in Russia.