Russia said Thursday it will agree to continue a UN investigation into use of chemical weapons in Syria if the quality of the group's work drastically improves.
"We are for the extension because the very fact of using chemical substances as a weapon is a totally unacceptable phenomenon for us, and I hope, for our many partners in the UN Security Council," said Mikhail Ulyanov, Director of the Russian Foreign Ministry's Nonproliferation and Arms Control Department.
But the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW)-UN Joint Investigative Mechanism (JIM) created to investigate chemical attacks in Syria "should really start working, not as it is doing now," he said at a press conference.
Ulyanov said that Russia later on Thursday would present its own draft resolution at the UN Security Council on the extension of the JIM mandate with recommendations for the UN General Secretary and the OPCW head.
Last week Russia blocked a UN Security Council draft resolution on the extension of the JIM mandate, citing the need to examine its latest report which the Foreign Ministry called "superficial and unprofessional."
The JIM report issued later on Oct. 26 attributed the responsibility for the high-profile chemical incident in the town of Khan Sheikhoun in Syria' s Idlib province in April to Damascus.
Ulyanov and experts from Russia's Defense Ministry and Industry and Trade Ministry provided at the press conference technical proof that the Syrian government was innocent of perpetrating the chemical attack, contrary to the report's allegation.
They said that members of the JIM based their conclusions on secondary and unconvincing evidence, without personally visiting the location of the incident.
A chemical attack was reportedly launched on Khan Sheikhoun in Syria on April 4 and killed dozens of people. The Syrian government has repeatedly dismissed Western accusations of its responsibility.
The Khan Sheikhoun attack prompted U.S. President Donald Trump to launch missile strikes on Syria's air base in Shayrat, which Western governments say was used to launch the gas attack.
