Terrorist Organizations and Their Supporters Completely Responsible for Use of Chemical Weapons in Syria: al-Mikdad

DAMASCUS, (ST)- The terrorist organizations and the parties supporting them are completely responsible for the use of chemical weapons in Syria, Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs and Expatriates Faisal al-Mikdad has stressed, calling on concerned international organizations to deal honestly and professionally with this file.

In a press conference on Saturday, al-Mikdad said that “certain well-known parties (the United States and its allies) have intensified accusations against Syria of using chemical weapons. This escalation comes in the light of great gains being achieved by the Syrian Arab army in the war against terrorism.”

 He reiterated that Syria has implemented the Security Council’s Resolution No. 2118 which calls for eliminating the Syrian chemical stockpile, despite the difficult and complicated circumstances in the country.

“The Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) continues to ignore the information provided by Syria about the use of chemical weapons by terrorist groups in several incidents and this raises suspicion and inquiry,” said al-Mikdad.

Syria has joined the Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC) in 2013 and in accordance with this move, the Syrian state handed over all its chemical stockpile to the OPCW which in turn destroyed the chemical materials outside the Syrian territories.

Anti-Syria campaign aims at supporting terrorists

The anti-Syria campaign launched by the United States and its allies aims at providing full support for the terrorists and at encouraging them to further use chemical weapons, said al-Mikdad, clarifying that since the beginning of 2018, the terrorists have used chemical weapons four times in “al-Sorouj village in Idleb countryside and in al-Msherfeh area”.

He added that evidence is available about the use of chemical weapon carrying  mustard gas by the armed groups on September 16, 2016 in Um Housh area as well as about the use of Sarin in 2013 in Khan al-Asal and eastern Ghouta.

Al-Mikdad went on to say that the OPCW experts ignored evidence provided by Syria about the gunmen getting huge quantities of toxic chemical materials as well as the technology necessary to produce such chemicals from  some neighboring countries. He pointed out that large amounts of chemical weapons were found in the areas liberated from terrorists by the Syrian army in November and December of 2017.

Conclusions of international investigation committees lack objectivity, professionalism

The deputy minister made it clear that the conclusions reached by the international investigation committees, including the OPCW fact-finding committee, which blame the Syrian government for the use of Sarin in Khan Sheikhoun, lack objectivity, credibility and professionalism.”

 He pointed out that experts of the Joint Investigative Mechanism (JIM) refused to visit the site of the alleged chemical attack in Khan Sheikhoun and applied a so-called “remote investigation”, yet the results of this investigation were used to justify the flagrant US aggression on al-Sha’airat airbase in Homs.

Al-Mikdad clarified that upon a Syrian request supported by Russia, a team of experts from the OPCW visited the airbase six week after the US aggression, but the experts arrived without bringing the equipments necessary for the investigation with them and they even didn’t collect a single sample from the site. He said that this method was repeated in investigating the use of sarin in al-Latamneh area and Chlorine in Eastern Ghouta.

He affirmed that despite an agreement with the armed groups to allow the OPCW’s experts to enter militant-held areas and despite the safety guarantees given to them, the experts didn’t visit these areas to collect evidence and samples.

 He also reiterated that Syria won’t accept any committee from the UN Human Rights Council UNHRC as it is politicized and propagating the policy of western states targeting Syria and supporting terrorists.

 Hamda Mustafa