The Islamic State group has shown it is prepared to use chemical weapons and is likely to have among its recruits the technical expertise to develop them, Australia’s Foreign Minister Julie Bishop said.
In a speech late Friday, Bishop said Australia had no doubt that the Syrian regime had used toxic chemicals including sarin and chlorine over the past four years.
But she said apart from some crude and small scale endeavours, the conventional wisdom had been that the Islamic State group’s intention to acquire and weaponize chemical agents was largely aspirational.
“The use of chlorine by Daesh, and its recruitment of highly technically trained professionals, including from the West, have revealed far more serious efforts in chemical weapons development,” she said in Perth, using the Arabic acronym for IS. (READ MORE)
