Atiyah: The West uses OPCW to implement its political agendas
The Hague-(ST)- Syria’s permanent representative to the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW ) Milad Atiyah, affirmed that Syria has done its best, worked with all commitment, credibility, transparency and implemented all its obligations under the Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC), but the United States of America and its allies worked to use this organization to implement their aggressive political agendas against Syria.
In a statement during the opening of the 105th session of the Executive Council of the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, Atiyah pointed out that Syria faced a historically unprecedented campaign of skepticism and false accusations of not cooperating with the organization and its technical secretariat and of hiding chemical weapons, However, the fact is that Syria has cooperated with the organization’s technical secretariat and provided all facilities for its teams, the best example of this was the cooperation and facilities that Syria provided to the declaration evaluation team during the 25th and 26th rounds of consultations, which resulted in resolving three outstanding issues in the Syrian initial declaration. This cooperation and what resulted from the consultations between the two sides proves with conclusive evidence how Western countries worked to fabricate the results of those consultations between Syria and the technical secretariat teams to make accusations against Syria.
Atiyah said: “The Syrian experience, and later the Russian one, and before both the experience of Jose Bustani with the organization, have become conclusive evidence of how some Western countries worked to politicize the work of this organization and divert it from the goals for which it was established and there is a lot of other evidence.” He pointed out that the adoption of the decision of the fourth special session of the Conference of States Parties in June 2018 and the establishment of an illegal team that violates the provisions of the Convention are considered as a turning point in the history of this organization, despite the fact that the majority of member states demanded the faithful, impartial and non-discriminatory implementation of what stipulated in the convention.
Atiyah stated that some Western countries are accustomed to imposing their dictates on some other countries and refusing to hear any opinion that contradicts their policies or does not serve their political agendas, even if it requires launching direct aggression against the sovereignty of other countries in a manner that violates international law and the Charter of the United Nations and contravenes the provisions of this agreement, as it happened in the American-British-French aggression against Syria in April 2018.
Atiyah renewed Syria’s position that calls on the OPCW’s Technical Secretariat to adopt its mandate under the CWC and to adhere to what the convention stipulates in Article 7, paragraph 46, and deal with professionalism and integrity away from pressure. He indicated that what happened in the briefing session on February 29 for the next time, where the Syrian delegation was prevented from explaining its point of view in a session dedicated to the Syrian chemical file, confirms that some employees of the Technical Secretariat are part of the Western countries’ aggressive campaign against Syria.
Atiyah said:” The US and some western countries have turned the OPCW into an area to settle its aggressive, colonialist and geopolitical scores, where the independence of this organization is at stake. We say clearly, the OPCW is no longer qualified to achieve its purposes in the light of this reality and it has become difficult to restore its credibility and accomplish the tasks assigned to it”.
Atiyah continued: “As a result of political interference from Western countries, the organization is currently facing a crisis of credibility, disagreements, polarization and divisions within it and these countries are continuing their approach by adopting politicized decisions targeting states parties to the agreement by resorting to voting. The best example of this is the politicized decision that was adopted by voting in the 28tyh session of the Conference of States Parties against Syria. This very controversial resolution does not reflect the will of the states parties to the Chemical Weapons Convention, but rather reflects the will of only 69 states out of 193 states”.
Atiyah added: “This decision which contradicts with the Organization mandate and was built on fabrications, lies, deception, misinformation, and false and baseless accusations, represents another dangerous step towards this organization losing its credibility and works to achieve goals that conflict with the organization’s goals. While the result of the vote indicates that more than two-thirds of the states parties to the agreement reject this destructive Western approach and behavior”.
Atiyah pointed out that what is happening in the OPCW is part of the deception operations with geopolitical motives that were carried out three decades ago in Iraq and other places in the world, and the evidence is many. He said:” In another new additional evidence, Western countries worked to exclude the Russian Federation from membership in the Executive Council in a manner that violates what the agreement stipulates in subparagraph (c) of Clause 23 of Article Eight”.
Atiyah stressed the need to support the request of the State of Palestine to investigate incidents of the Zionist entity’s use of chemical weapons against the Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip, calling on the Technical Secretariat to move and carry out its tasks in accordance with its mandate, as it has done in other places. He said: “The excuse that there is no evidence and that the security situation does not allow investigation is unacceptable and reveals double standards. The question is: Did the investigation teams of the Technical Secretariat visit the sites of the alleged incidents in Syria? The answer is no, and for information only, in all the reports issued by the organization regarding alleged incidents in Syria, the organization’s teams did not visit the sites of those incidents at all”.
Hanan Shamout/Souha Sulieman