Dr. Al-Jaafari: Some Western countries insist on using the so-called “chemical file” as a weapon in the war imposed on Syria and to put pressure and political blackmail to serve their agendas

New York (ST):  Deputy Foreign and Expatriates  Minister and Syria’s permanent representative to the United Nations, Dr. Bashar al-Jaafari, denounced the insistence of some Western countries to use the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW)  and the so-called “chemical file” as a weapon in the war imposed on Syria and as a tool to put pressure and political blackmail to serve the agendas of these countries in Syria and the region.

During a UN Security Council  session held via video link about the situation in Syria, Al-Jaafari said:” My country  joined the Chemical Weapons Convention in 2013 and engaged in serious and constructive cooperation with the relevant United Nations organizations, the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons and its Technical Secretariat, which resulted in its assistance in getting rid of its stockpile of these weapons and their production materials and facilities and thus, since 2014, it no longer possesses any weapons. This fact was confirmed in the briefing that the Head of the Joint Mission Sigrid Kaag gave to the Security Council in June 2014 and was later reconfirmed by the UN and OPCW reports.”

Al-Jaafari added that some Western countries prefer to deny this established fact and believed that serving their agendas towards Syria and the region requires the use of the OPCW and the so-called “chemical file” as a weapon in the war imposed on Syria and as a tool to exert pressure and political blackmail, as if those countries were not satisfied with their previous crimes and lies, the features of which were disclosed to the whole world and proved to be merely fabricated allegations aimed at justifying direct acts of military aggression and gross violations of international law and the United Nations Charter and spreading death and devastation, as were the policies of these same countries during the US-British invasion of Iraq and NATO’s destruction of Libya.

The Deputy Foreign Minister explained that the result was the politicization of the so-called “chemical file” and the push for the OPCW to issue reports that lack even the lowest standards of credibility, professionalism and objectivity as they were prepared remotely and without visiting the alleged accident sites and based on uncertain guesses, preferences and assumptions based on what it called “open sources”  and the terrorist groups and their media arm called the “White Helmets” and their sponsors and false witnesses.

Al-Jaafari referred  to the establishment of illegal mechanisms that were passed in violation of the law and the provisions of the OPCW agreement, such as the so-called “Investigation and Identification Team”. Not only that, but they adopted a biased policy based on serving Western agendas and ignoring information and evidence   they had received from the Syrian and Russian governments.He also referred to  their attempt to silence senior inspectors in the Organization, such as “Ian Henderson” and  first general director, “Jose Boustany”, and experts and specialists in their fields of work to cover up the organization’s great scandals.

The Syrian diplomat stated that, in the face of the Western hostile approach, and despite Syria’s realization of the true goals of the targeted campaigns launched against it, it continued its cooperation with the Prohibition Organization and its technical secretariat, and on the nineteenth of last month it presented its 86 monthly report on activities related to the destruction of chemical weapons and their production facilities.

In this report,  the Syrian National Committee renewed affirmation of readiness to follow technical consultations and meetings with the Technical Secretariat of the OPCW to resolve all pending issues in accordance with what was previously agreed upon and to continue dialogue aimed at resolving all these issues, which led to great progress in a number of them making them ready for closure.

Al-Jaafari clarified that out of interest in  closing the file  and in response to the OPCW Director-General to send an “evaluation team” to Syria to hold the 24th round of consultations during the period from February 7 through 24, Syria welcomed the visit of this team at the proposed date and expressed   readiness to provide all possible facilities for the success of the round of consultations in a way that contributes to closing this file.

Al-Jaafari reiterated Syria’s condemnation of the West’s attempts and pressures to impose the passage of a French-Western draft resolution  which falsely alleges what they called “non-compliance” with Syria’s obligations under the Chemical Weapons Convention, stressing that this project or any similar move is a hostile and politicized act aimed at accusing Syria of using Chemical weapons  and the exoneration of terrorists who continue to carry out terrorist acts and take instructions from their operators and sponsors to prepare for plays on the use of chemical weapons to accuse Syria and to find pretexts for attacks on it, similar to the American aggression on Shuai’rat Airport on April 7, 2017.

K.Q.