Syria: Recent OPCW’s briefing aimed at deviating world’s attention from manipulation of final report on Douma incident

DAMASCUS, (ST)- Syria has stressed that the content of the recent briefing of the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) on its internal investigation into the leaks pertaining to “Douma report” aims at falsifying facts and deviating the world’s attention from the core issue, which is the investigative team’s manipulation of the final report on the alleged chemical incident in Syria’s Douma.

In a statement on Tuesday, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Expatriates said that the General Secretariat of the OPCW, several days ago, held a briefing on the results of the internal investigation it has conducted into the leakage of sensitive information about the final report of the OPCW’s Fact-Finding Mission on Douma incident in April 2018.

The ministry said that what was surprising is that the Secretariat  delivered its position but didn’t give the member countries any chance to make any comments or ask any questions.

 Syria considers that the technical secretariat’s briefing has failed to answer the fundamental question regarding the extent to which the information presented in the final OPCW report is consistent with the reality on the ground, the ministry said.

The ministry added that Syria stresses that the technical secretariat’s refrain from opening discussion with the member countries indicates that it will continues to evade facing the leaks and irrefutable facts presented by some OPCW experts that uncover the forgery and manipulation that took place while the final report was being prepared by the fact-finding mission.

Syria asserts that the General Secretariat’s briefing is part of the western countries plan to cover the scandals unveiled recently and to hide the fact that its conclusions on the Douma incident were not objective, the ministry went on to say.

The ministry concluded by affirming that the OPCW General Secretariat needs to change its approach and not to bend under the pressure applied by the United States and its allies to politicize the Secretariat’s work and manipulate its teams’ reports. It also badly needs to confirm its neutrality, independence, objectivity and credibility in order to regain confidence in its teams’ future reports, the ministry concluded.

Hamda Mustafa