THE HAGUE, August 31. /TASS/. Russia informed Director General of the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) Fernando Arias about the impending provocation in Syria with the use of chemical weapons, Russia's Permanent Representative to the OPCW Alexander Shulgin said in an interview with TASS.
According to Shulgin, recently there have been reports that militants in the province of Idlib are planning to conduct another provocation using chemical weapons. "Through the OPCW, we provided the necessary information to the Director General, Fernando Arias," he said. According to Shulgin, Syrians sent materials available to them to the Technical Secretariat of the organization.
"We were promised these materials will be studies very carefully," Shulgin said. "So far, there is no other reaction, but we would like to hope that the Technical Secretariat will take this seriously and take appropriate steps," he added.
In addition, the Permanent Representation of the Russian Federation to the OPCW plans to issue a special press release in the near future. "We plan to issue a special press release in the near future, which will be circulated among the member states of the OPCW Executive Council. We will send it to diplomatic missions that are accredited not only in The Hague, but also in Belgium," he said. "We also plan to hold a meeting with a number of delegations live at the beginning of next week," the diplomat added.
"We must do everything possible to prevent this terrible tragedy, which the opponents of Bashar Assad want to use to advance their narrow-minded goals of overthrowing the legitimate authorities," Shulgin said.
Earlier Russian Defense Ministry Spokesman Major General Igor Konashenkov told reporters that major provocations with the alleged use of chemical weapons are planned in Syria with the participation of foreign specialists.
"According to the information that the Russian Reconciliation Center for Syria received today from the residents of the Idlib, foreign (English-speaking) experts arrived in the Hbit settlement located in the south of the Idlib zone of de-escalation for staging a ‘chemical attack’ using chlorine-loaded missiles," said he.
According to Konashenkov, provocations will be conducted in Syria in the next two days with the participation of foreign special agents. According to him, English-speaking experts arrived in the south of the Idlib de-escalation zone to stage a chemical attack using chlorine-laden rockets. "The strike on the settlement of Kafr Zayta from rocket launchers using poisonous substances is planned in the next two days," he said.
"Thus, the interested extra-regional forces are once again preparing major provocations in Syria using poisonous substances to severely destabilize the situation and disrupt the steady dynamics of the ongoing peace process," Konashenkov noted.