The four rogue states dealing in nerve agents
RUSSIA
A KEY player in international nerve agent production.
The finger of suspicion over the Salisbury attack is pointed at the Yasenevo labs in Moscow.
Here, for years it is believed, Vladimir Putin’s top scientists have been producing deadly substances, some for one-time use with no antidote.
Most military powers, including Britain and the US, make nerve agents.
But the 1997 Chemical Weapons Convention limits their use to research and defence. NORTH KOREA THE secretive communist state is by far the most prolific at producing nerve agents.
Work is carried out at several secret underground facilities around the country.
Despot leader Kim Jong-un’s military scientists are suspected of producing many tons of material, enough to kill millions of people. SYRIA THE war-torn state is still believed to be producing nerve agents and attacking civilians and rebels with them despite being warned by the West.
It has a closely guarded biological and chemical weapons complex just outside Damascus, thought to be well-disguised. President Assad insists the scientists are extremely wellvetted as Israel, the nation most threatened by Syria, has periodically bombed and destroyed his WMD establishments. IRAN THE Islamic regime sworn to destroy Israel is thought to have been making offensive nerve agents for years. It has close ties to Syria and its Revolutionary Guards are suspected of links to Assad’s WMD programme.
The regimes are thought to have done deals on locating chemicals and may even have swapped expertise.