Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons

The Kremlin on Thursday rejected allegations by the United States that Russian forces had used a "chemical weapon" in Ukraine and blasted new sanctions targeting Moscow's key trading partners.

The U.S. State Department said Wednesday that Russia used "the chemical weapon chloropicrin" against Ukrainian forces.

The Turkish Foreign Ministry said it will support the efforts by the United Nations for ensuring accountability over the use of chemical weapons by the Syrian regime.

The debate erupted over a report by an organization accusing Syria of a 2017 sarin and chlorine attack.
Russia called the allegations unfounded at a closed session of the UN Security Council, while EU countries claimed responsibility for the move by the Syrian government, AP reports.

The global chemical weapons watchdog on April 8 for the first time explicitly blamed Syria for toxic attacks, saying President Bashar al-Assad's air force used the nerve gas sarin and chlorine three times in 2017.    

At its annual conference the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) unanimously elected Bulgaria as a member of its Executive Council for the period 2019-2021, the press center of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced, quoted by the Bulgarian National Radio. 

Romania's Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MAE) has welcomed the passage in The Hague of the decision of the Decision Addressing the Threat from Chemical Weapons Use by the Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC) Conference of States Parties.

The Palestinians have joined the global convention to halt the spread of toxic arms, the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) announced on Wednesday.

 A team of inspectors from the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) visited a site in Douma, Syria on Saturday to collect samples as it tries to determine whether such weapons were used there on April 7, the agency said, cited by Reuters.

Inspectors from the OPCW chemical watchdog will begin their investigation on April 15 at the site of an alleged chemical attack near Damascus, Agence France-Presse reported, citing a senior official.

Britain and the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) have not yet presented 100% evidence of Russian involvement in the poisoning of Sergei Scripal. For this reason, Austria will currently refrain from expelling Russian diplomats. This was stated by Austrian Foreign Minister Karin Kneissl.