A DIFFERENCE of opinion has emerged within the Foreign Office over who has told or not told the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) that Russia was secretly making nerve agents.
In November, Ambassador Peter Wilson, the UK rep on the OPCW, praised the outgoing director general of the organisation for various achievements including “the completion of the verified destruction of Russia’s declared chemical weapons programme”.
READ MORE: EU demands Russia come clean 'urgently' on novichok nerve agent programme
At the weekend, Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson said: “We actually have evidence within the last 10 years that Russia has not only been investigating the delivery of nerve agents for the purpose of assassination, but has also been creating and stockpiling novichok.”
Yesterday the OPCW stated: “There is no record of the novichok group of nerve agents having been declared by a state party to the Chemical Weapons Convention.”
On March 4, Sergei and Yulia Skripal were poisoned in Salisbury with a military-grade nerve agent of a type developed by Russia.
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The UK then expelled 23 Russian diplomats who it identified as undeclared intelligence officers, and is developing proposals for new legislative powers to harden defences against hostile state activity and ensure those seeking to carry out such activity cannot enter Britain.
The UK Government has also suspended all planned high-level contacts between the UK and the Russian Federation, and no official or royal family member will attend the World Cup in Russia this summer.
Russia has completely denied any link to the poisoning and has retaliated by expelling 23 British diplomats and closing the British Council in Moscow.
Ambassador Wilson’s speech to the OPCW on November 27 last year stated: “First, I must thank our director general, Ahmet Uzumcu, for his committed, tireless leadership of the OPCW.”
On progress made under Uzumcu’s leadership, he added: “The OPCW has marked the completion of the verified destruction of Russia’s declared chemical weapons programme.”
A European source speaking on condition of anonymity told the National: “It seems that the UK is making a big play of Russia’s ‘undeclared’ nerve agents, but if there was evidence of that why did the UK not complain to the OPCW and hand over the evidence?
“Peter Wilson is a man respected for his integrity. So was he kept in the dark by his own Foreign Office?”
The National asked the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO): “At what point did the FCO become aware of the creation and stockpiling of novichok? Why was Ambassador Wilson not told? Why was the OPCW not told?”
No answer had been received by the time we went to press but will be posted online if received.
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