Poliansky: The OPCW should not turn into a tool for punishing states with baseless allegations

New York, (ST) –Russia’s First Deputy Permanent Representative to the UN, Dmitry Polyansky, stressed that the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons or any other international organization should not be turned into a tool to punish countries that contradict the Western policies by making unfounded allegations about its use of chemical weapons.

Poliansky said during a Security Council session “any country can end up in the situation that Syria has reached in the event that the Westerners decide to use the chemical weapons file to put pressure on it.  He accused the OPCW of violating the principle of consensus and creating “an illegitimate investigation and identification team” that committed many errors in accusing Syria of using chemical weapons.

Polyansky said it was likely that later this month that, the OPCW team “will serve “another surprise report” on investigation with accusations against the Syrian government in its conclusions.”

The Russian envoy urged a “no” vote on suspending Syria. “If you deprive Syria of its right to participate in decisions made within the organization, what is the point of Damascus to continue working with them at all?” he asked.

Poliansky added that it is possible that the investigation and identification team of the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) will announce the start of another investigation into the alleged use of chemical weapons in Syria.

Poliansky pointed out that “the bulk of the evidence of direct forgery, manipulation and internal violations in the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons and related to the chemical file in Syria reached a critical degree, which are blatant violations during the investigations into the allegations of the use of chemical weapons in Khan Sheikhoun April 2017 and the Duma of April 2018. The former employees of the organization falsified the investigation mission’s findings under the pressure of Western countries and the practice of suppressing and intimidating the inspectors who rejected the forgery.

Syria’s permanent representative to the United Nations, Bassam Sabbagh, affirmed in his speech to the Security Council yesterday that the French-Western draft resolution presented to the OPCW conference represents another piece of evidence of the aggressive intentions of some countries against Syria. He called again on the member states to adhere to the principles of international law to reject the project to protect the organization.

Syria joined the Chemical Weapons Convention in September 2013, pressed by Russia after a deadly chemical weapons attack that the West blamed on Damascus. By August 2014, the Syrian government declared that the destruction of its chemical weapons was completed.

Raghda Sawas