Al-Mikdad’s statement to the Conference on Disarmament in Geneva

Damascus, (ST) – Minister of Foreign Affairs and Expatriates Faisal Al-Mikdad has affirmed that sparing future generations the scourge of war, as stipulated in the UN Charter, has collided with the attempts of the Western permanent members of the Security Council to evade implementing their obligations, ti impose their hegemony on other countries and to fuel conflicts.

In a video speech at the Conference on Disarmament in Geneva, Al-Mikdad said that Syria faced an unjust war during which well-known countries employed terrorism as a weapon against the Syrian people, sent tens of thousands of foreign terrorists to Syria after providing them with various types of weapons, including internationally prohibited ones, to serve the aggressive agendas of these western countries.

Al-Mikdad said that the policies of those countries helped the terrorist organizations, such as “ISIS” and “Jabhat Al-Nusra” acquire chemical weapons and use them repeatedly against the Syrian citizens and army.

“For this reason, there is a need to address the shortcomings in international instruments and to enhance joint action away from politicization and misinformation, with the aim of finding a mechanism to coordinate international efforts to confront chemical terrorism”, he clarified.

Al-Mikdad affirmed that Syria renews its support for the initiative put forward by Russia to the Conference on Disarmament to combat chemical and biological terrorism, and to start negotiations in the conference on a draft agreement for this purpose based on the Russian document.

Al-Mikdad pointed out that Syria’s experience with the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) has proved that political subordinatiin of those in charge of managing this organization  to the policies and dictates of Western countries that considered Syria as an enemy.

Al-Mikdad said that Syria calls upon the states parties to the OPCW to conduct, during the next review conference, a responsible and accurate revision of the organization’s course of action and to correct the obvious mistakes and violations against the provisions of the Chemucal Weapons Convention (CWC) in order to preserve the organization and its future.

The Syrian top diplomat affirmed that the Israeli occupation entity constitutes a source of permanent and serious threat to regional and international peace and security.

He said that Syria has affirmed that the occupying entity (Israel) and its supporters are obstructing the establishment of a zone free of weapons of mass destruction in the Middle East, which requires the United Nations to compel this entity to join the Non-Proliferation Treaty and subject all its nuclear facilities to the comprehensive safeguards system of the International Atomic Energy Agency.

Al-Mikdad pointed out that the Western version of the outcomes of the talks on the Iranian nuclear deal ignores the fact that what has happened is the result of the United States’ withdrawal from the agreement and the failure of European countries and the European Union to fulfill their obligations under this deal.

He stressed that the only way to overcome the deteriorating situation in the international security environment lies in the commitment of Member States, in words and deeds, to international law and UN Charter and in the implementation of their obligations in the field of arms control, nuclear disarmament and non-proliferation, away from double standards and political agendas.

Saghda Sawas