Turkish prime minister visits OPCW as ISIS continues chemical weapon use

Prime Minister of Turkey Ahmet Davutoğlu held a meeting with the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) on Wednesday at OPCW headquarters in The Hague.

Ahmet Uzumcu, director-general of the OPCW, briefed the prime minister on the OPCW’s work implementing the Chemical Weapons Convention and the progress the organization has achieved. Additional updates were provided regarding Syria and strengthening the authority of the convention as a key disarmament treaty.

The meeting preceded CIA Director John Brennan’s interview with 60 Minutes wherein he stated that the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS/ISIL) has used and will continue to produce small quantities of chlorine and mustard gas to be used in warfare.

“U.S. intelligence is actively involved in being a part of the efforts to destroy ISIL and to get as much insight into what they have on the ground inside of Syria and Iraq,” Brennan said.

U.S. Director of National Intelligence James Clapper said that ISIS’s development of chemical weapons was the first instance of an extremist group doing so since Japan’s Aum Supreme Truth cult used sarin gas in a rush hour attack on the Tokyo subway in 1995.