THE HAGUE, August 26 /TASS/. The United Nations and the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) Joint Investigative Mechanism set up to investigate chemical weapons use in Syria will continue its work until September and to present a fourth report before its mandate expires, Sasa Gorisek, the mechanism’s spokeswoman, told TASS on Friday.
"A third report of the OPCW-UN Joint Investigative Mechanism will be made public after the United Nations Security Council considers it at its meeting on August 30," Gorisek said. "A fourth report is expected to be presented before the mandate expires in September," she stressed.
Gorisek refused to comment on a possibility to extend the Mechanism’s mandate.
The report, which the United Nations Security Council will consider on August 30, says that experts have received information about 100 possible chemical attacks in Syria. Nine attacks, which occurred in 2014-2015, were studied in detail. Experts identified that the Syrian Armed Forces were behind the two attacks. The only force, which had the motive and capability to launch the third attack, was the Islamic State terrorist group, (which is outlawed in Russia).
The OPCW-UN Joint Investigative Mechanism was set up in 2015 with an aim to identify those who stand behind chemical weapons attacks in Syria. An OPCW mission for establishing the facts of use of toxic substances in Syria has been working in Syria since 2014. The OPCW-UN Joint Investigative Mechanism uses the information provided by the mission and collects additional data, which could be helpful in identifying those guilty of the chemical attacks.