MOSCOW, October 20. /TASS/. The United States is seeking to distort Russia’s position and is indulging in lies and crooked gambling in a bid to have the United Nations Security Council extend the mandate of the Joint Investigative Mechanism (JIM) of the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) and the United Nations in Syria, a high ranking Russian Foreign Ministry official told TASS on Friday commenting on US ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley’s allegations that Moscow plans to block the mandate extension in case the JIM issues an anti-Russian report on October 26.

"This is not true, although I can hardly keep from using stringer words: this is a lie, twisting the facts and crooked gambling," said Mikhail Ulyanov, director of the ministry’s non-proliferation and weapons control department. "As a matter of fact, we put it straight: all depends on the quality of the report rather than on its conclusions. It looks like Haley intentionally distorts Russia’s position to ‘expose’ it and picture us in a wrong light. It is indecent for a diplomat of such a high rank."

The United States is seeking to extend the mandate looking into the use of chemical weapons in Syria by "putting the cart before the horse," according to Ulyanov. 

"The Americans have astonished us increasingly more often recently by taking strange steps that run counter to established and proven practice," the diplomat said referring to Washington’s plans to submit to the UN Security Council a draft resolution on extending the JIM’s mandate before the appearance of the mission’s report, which is expected to be made public on October 26. "The US suggests putting the cart before the horse despite the fact that little is known about the JIM’s activities over the past year. During the past year, the JIM presented, perhaps, only one report, and the administrative-technical one at that. There were no substantive reports, and extending powers in these circumstances would be unwise."