The performance of OPCW gets worse, says Ryazantsev

Hague, (ST) – The head of the Russian delegation to the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, Oleg Ryazantsev, said that the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW)has never been a common house within which all member states work freely, establish respectful dialogue and reach solutions to urgent issues.

“The performance of the OPCW is getting worse, while the practice based on the principle of unanimous decision-making has disappeared, and the atmosphere within the OPCW has become severely politicized,” TASS news agency quoted Ryazantsev as saying in a statement posted on the organization’s website on Monday.

 Ryazantsev added that the reason for all this is the desire of a small group of countries to subject international law to the laws invented by these countries. He referred in this regard to the decision taken in 2018 to give the technical secretariat of the organization the task of identifying those responsible for the use of chemical weapons and the establishingthe so-called illegal investigation and identification team, which claimed “Syria spread chemical weapons.”

The Russian official added that the OPCW’s stability was undermined by the campaign led by a small group of countries after the alleged poisoning incident of “Alexei Navalny” in August last year. Russia had to investigate the incident in cooperation with the technical secretariat of the organization. 

The official also pointed out that, Britain, France, Germany and Sweden were on the first line in this campaign, and they were the ones who later tried to hide the truth about the accident.

Ryazantsev added that, contrary to the promises made by the presidency of the technical secretariat of the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weaponsduring the past year, it was never the house where all member states work freely, objectively and respectfully.

Raghda Sawas