OPCW Investigation and Identification Team is illegal and Moscow doesn’t recognize it: Russian Ambassador
DAMASCUS, (ST)- Russian Ambassador to Syria Alexander Yefimov has renewed his country’s rejection of the Western accusations against the Syrian Arab Army of using chemical weapons in the countryside of Syria’s Hama province, pointing out that Moscow does not recognize the so-called Investigation and Identification Team (IIT) of the Technical Secretariat of the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons OPCW, because it was formed outside the framework of the Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC).
In a statement to Sputnik on Saturday, Yefimov said that Russia is preparing a suitable response to the team’s report on the alleged chemical incident, pointing out that his country has issued a statement rejecting the investigation committee’s accusations against Syria.
On April 8th, the press office of the Russian Permanent Mission to the OPCW stressed Moscow’s condemnation of the OPCW work in Syria, affirming that the organization has committed grave violations of the main principles of its work in its new untrustworthy report.
On Thursday, Syria’s Permanent Representative to the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) Bassam Sabbagh stressed that the report of the so-called “Investigation and Identification Team” issued by the OPCW’s Technical Secretariat on April 8, included wrong conclusions based on false and fabricated information aiming at distorting facts and accusing the Syrian government of using toxic chemical materials in incidents that took place on the 24th, 25th and 30th of March, 2017 in the village of Latamenah in Hama.
Hamda Mustafa