Sabbagh: Syria rejects western countries’ attempts to use the OPCW to achieve their hostile goals

Syria rejects some western countries’ continuous attempts to use the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapon (OPCW) as a tool to achieve their hostile goals, Syria’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations Bassam Sabbagh stressed during a Security Council meeting held on Tuesday to discuss Syria’s chemical file.

“These countries continue to politicize the chemical file in Syria, to provide cover for the terrorist groups’ crimes against the Syrians and to manipulate the texts of the Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC) to create illegal mechanisms that serve their agendas,” Sabbagh said.

He added that Syria has voluntarily cooperated with the OPCW since it joined the CWC in 2013 and this should be recognized as Syria has completely destroyed its stockpile of chemical weapons and their production facilities in a record time.

He pointed out that it has become well-known to all that some countries, namely the United States, France and Britain, are ignoring this fact for political goals, which they have been trying to achieve since 2011, with the aim of undermining stability and security in Syria and destroying the country’s capabilities.

He called on the parties that urge Syria to abide by the CWC to prevent the countries that violate the convention from facilitating the delivery of weapons and toxic chemicals to the terrorist organizations and to hold them accountable for the crimes committed against the Syrian people, including using chemical weapons and fabricating chemical attacks.

He noted that Syria has presented a lot of information to the Security Council about these crimes.

He affirmed that the fact-finding mission of the OPCW doesn’t work professionally and neutrally and that the reports it has submitted serve the political agendas of some influential countries.

Sabbagh reaffirmed Syria’s stance on the illegality of establishing the so-called “Investigation and Identification Team” (IIT) of the OPCW, because the CWC didn’t task the OPCW’s Technical Secretariat to conduct investigations as to identify the parties that are responsible for the use of chemical weapons and thus the IIT has been given an illegal mandate and this indicates a problem in implementing the CWC.

He clarified that establishing the IIT by a resolution imposed through voting and with the agreement of less than half of the number of the countries member in the CWC and in contrary to the consensus usually made in the resolutions adopted by the OPCW,  is a clear violation of the OPCW’s rules.

He reiterated that Syria completely refuses to recognize this team and its wrong and unprofessional work mechanism which will certainly lead to void conclusions that deserve condemnation.

Sabbagh renewed Syria’s condemnation of the use of chemical weapons by whoever, whenever, wherever and under any circumstances.

Hamda Mustafa