Ambassador Sabbagh: Syria has warned that the wrong course of the OPCW teams on the alleged Douma incident will lead to false conclusions

New York (ST): Syria’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations, Ambassador Bassam Sabbagh, affirmed that Syria has repeatedly warned that the wrong and unprofessional path followed by the fact-finding mission of the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons on the alleged Douma incident will lead to null conclusions, expressing regret that the mission did not correct its working methods despite all invitations made to it to abide by the rules stipulated in the prohibition agreement and the terms of reference document that were agreed upon with Syria.

Sabbagh said during a session of the Security Council on the “chemical file” in Syria that Syria took a strategic decision in 2013 to accede to the Chemical Weapons Convention, and completely destroyed its stockpile of these weapons in record time despite the difficult circumstances it was going through. The United Nations and the Organization for Prohibition confirmed this matter, indicating that Syria cooperated openly and transparently with the organization and facilitated the visits of its various teams, and was keen to work with it in order to correct the wrong working methods that affected the credibility of its reports and kept it away from its professional role and technical mandate entrusted to it by the agreement.

Sabbagh explained that Syria has always and repeatedly affirmed its firm position in condemning the use of chemical weapons by anyone, at any time, place and under any circumstances, and immediately after the emergence of allegations about the alleged incident of using chemical weapons in Douma on April 7, 2018, it took the initiative to demand the director general of the Organization  to send a fact-finding mission to investigate this incident, whose arrival in Damascus was delayed by a whole week.

Syria’s permanent representative to the United Nations pointed out that the decision adopted by the fourth special session of the Conference of the States Parties to the Prohibition Treaty on June 27, 2018, according to which the so-called “Investigation and Identification Team” was established constituted a dangerous turning point in the history of the Organization, and clearly reflected the great politicization of the United States and its Western allies changing the technical organization into a political labyrinth that undermined its credibility.

Sabbagh indicated that less than half of the member states supported this decision, or only 82 out of 193 countries, and ignoring the positions of the countries that voted against it, abstained from voting, or was absent from it due to the flagrant manipulation of the texts of the ban agreement and the clear violation of its provisions, the establishment of this team was made illegal, prompting Syria and other countries to declare that they do not recognize the illegal team nor the reports that will be issued by it later.

Sabbagh indicated that the Syrian and Russian missions to the Organization for Prohibition in The Hague brought 17 witnesses from the site of the alleged incident in Douma to the Organization’s headquarters on April 26, 2018, to testify about the alleged chemical attack, during which they refuted all allegations that were fabricated by terrorist groups and their supporters, stressing that it is a fabricated play, but the fact-finding mission did not interview them and their testimonies were not heard.

The Permanent Representative of Syria to the United Nations stated that many academics, independent military experts, and specialists from the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, led by Jose Bustani, the first director general of the Organization, and Inspector Ian Henderson, who led the team that participated in the investigation of the alleged Douma incident, and others, presented an accurate scientific analysis. They professionally refuted the conclusions included in the report of the fact-finding mission and proved that this report is unprofessional, impartial and unfair, in addition to the publication of the British newspaper Daily Mail a report that included an acknowledgment by the BBC station that the documentary film that was shown on its channel “Radio 4” on the alleged incident contained errors and false allegations. The independent Canadian journalist Aaron Matte, who visited the site of the alleged incident in Douma, provided factual reports on the fabrication of this incident.

Sabbagh stressed that the wrong and unprofessional path followed by the fact-finding mission will naturally lead to invalid conclusions.He expressed regret that the mission did not correct its wrong and unprofessional methods of work that it followed in its investigations into the alleged incident, despite all the calls made to it to abide by the rules stipulated in the Convention and the terms of reference document agreed upon with Syria.

K.Q.