Shulgin: Russia and Syria coordinate their stances at OPCW to counter campaigns of lies launched by some western countries

A lecture entitled “Cooperation between the Syrian and Russian Missions to the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons and the reality of the current work in the organization” was given today at the ‘Al-Assad” Library in Damascus by Alexander Shulgin, Russia’s Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary to the Netherlands and Permanent Representative of the Russian Federation to the OPCW.

Mr. Shulgin affirmed that since starting his work at the OPCW in 2015, he noticed the extent of cooperation and coordination between the permanent missions of Syria and Russia to the organization to counter the campaigns of lies and defamation resulting from the politicization approach adopted by some Western countries.

“Since 2015, Syria’s enemies have used methods to overthrow the Syrian state… They have paid great attention to activities at the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons with the aim of sabotaging and destroying Syria…..There are official documents at the US State Department which say that their main confrontation in The Hague is between “Civilized countries”,  according to America’s description of itself, on the one hand, and “barbaric countries,” in reference to “Syria and Russia”….. Russia and Syria were defending their legitimate interests at the Organization and  stood side by side with the Permanent Representative of Syria, Ambassador Bassam Sabbagh, to confront that Western attack……This inflamed the feelings of anger among our enemies, but it did not stop them from going ahead  with implementing their anti-Syrian plans, as they repeatedly tried to harm Syria and Russia by choosing different approaches to attack the two friendly countries.”

He regretted that  these approaches were supported by the organization’s technical secretariat, especially a group of missions such as the fact-finding mission.

Mr. Shulgin went on to say: “ In 2015, the OPCW was boasting of “the glory it had enjoyed” by winning the Nobel Peace Prize for “eliminating the chemical weapons in the Syrian Arab Republic,” as it put it, and the situation began to gradually deteriorate, especially when the West tried to pass a decision at the organization against Syria. , and tried to take action against the Syrian authorities and all its allied countries. In 2016, the Western countries tried to pass a decision at the organization regarding the need to inspect facilities on Syrian territory, including the Hmeimim airbase….We all remember the big lie through which America invaded Iraq and destroyed its infrastructure and left hundreds of thousands of victims.”

He indicated that in April 2017, the Western officials intensified their misinformation campaigns against Syria through claiming that chemical weapons were used in Khan Sheikhoun area without presenting a clear evidence, while in 2021, 2022 and 2023 the OPCW  issued three anti-Syria- reports that were full of lies.

He pointed out that after Khan Sheikhon incident, there was a high level of escalation from the former US President Donald Trump, who, made a hasty decision to punish Damascus after he saw fake pictures of children “affected by Sarin gas”, which  were shown to him, according to allegations.

Mr. Shulgin also referred to the fact that many experts noticed, after the aggression that was launched by US, France and UK on Syria under the pretext of the alleged use of chemical weapons in Douma area in the countryside of Damascus, that there were contradictions in the evidence presented by the US administration, and it was clear the extent of the systematic misinformation in the pictures that were shown about the use of a chemical weapon. “This confused Western officials who tried to hide not only the facts in many of the official sessions of the organization, but also the facts and accurate evidence presented by the Syrian and Russian delegations.”

He asserted the fear of the OPCW’s experts of the American threats and pressures when they are preparing their reports, which are mainly pre-prepared by the West.

Mr. Shulgin referred to his country’s attempt to include Russian and Iranian experts in the fact-finding mission, but that was refused by the OPCW’s technical secretariat for illogical reasons .

He also spoke in details about many provocations that terrorist organizations made against the Syrian state in cooperation with the US administration and Western countries, such as the Duma incident, the fact-finding mission report, and the French attempt to pass resolutions against Syria based on the movie entitled “The Cave” and its allegations about the Syrian army’s siege of Aleppo.

“Russia called for screening of a documentary film entitled “The Path to Light,” which was produced in Damascus and contains information that refute the allegations of the Syrian doctor in “The Cave” movie and refute her claim of “the brutality of the Syrian Arab Army.”

During the symposium, a documentary was screened refuting the allegations of the chemical attack in Douma, and showing how terrorist organizations and the so-called “White Helmets” were staging chemical attacks to blame the Syrian state.

Reported by: Basma Qaddour