Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons must end its desk investigations against Syria, says Shulgin

Hague, (ST) – Russia’s delegate to the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, Alexander Shulgin, reaffirmed his country’s firm position on the need for the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons to end its practices of conducting investigations related to Syria without access to the sites of alleged incidents.

“Russia has repeatedly stressed the need for the fact-finding mission on allegations of the use of chemical weapons in Syria to fully comply with the standards of the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), Shulgin was quoted by TASS News Agency as saying yesterday at the 27th conference held by the OPCW in The Hague.

Shulgin added that “we still insist that it is necessary to put an end to desk investigations, which are carried out without traveling to accident sites, without selecting samples by the Technical Secretariat inspectors, and also without following the sequence of procedures to ensure the preservation of evidence.”

The Russian diplomat referred to the so-called “investigation and identification team.”  He indicated that the existence of this team is not stipulated in the mandate of the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons.

Shulgin stressed that the decision to deprive Syria of its rights and privileges, a decision based on the conclusions of the international advisory team using the method of “weighting and reasonable reasons”, is nothing but a cynical revenge on a sovereign country and an actual obstruction of efforts aimed at making the agreement more global.

Raghda Sawas