Dmitry Polyanskiy, First Deputy Permanent Representative of the Russian Federation to the UN, called on all delegations in the Council and the OPCW not to support the initiative to deprive Syria of a number of rights at the OPCW.
In July 2020, the OPCW executive board gave Syria 90 days to report to the organization about the plants that allegedly produced the chemical weapons used in March 2017, as well as to declare the alleged chemical weapons SAR now has. As the media reported, in November, Fernando Arias, Director-General of the OPCW, said that Syria failed to meet the 90-day deadline to declare the weapons allegedly used in al-Latamna and disclose its remaining stockpiles. For this, France proposed that the OPCW "suspend the rights and privileges" of Syria, in particular proposing that it be deprived of its vote in the organization.
"Taking advantage of the fact that the widest possible audience is watching this Council meeting, I call on all delegations here and in The Hague to show responsibility and oppose this draft decision, which poses a real threat to the credibility of the OPCW, and with it the UN Security Council, which is responsible for implementing resolution 2118," Polyanskiy said.
According to him, the OPCW or any other specialized organization cannot be allowed to punish unwanted people through groundless accusations of the use of weapons of mass destruction.
"In Syria's place could be any other state that Western colleagues decide to press with their chemical leverage. By opposing the defeat of Syria's rights at the OPCW, you will essentially be opposing double standards and defending a just world order in which there is no place for the dictate of force. All states must be equal in the context of respect for international law," the First Deputy Permanent Representative added.
Russia and the Syrian government have repeatedly accused the OPCW of bias in the investigation of incidents in the Arab republic and questioned the conclusions made by the technical secretariat of the OPCW. The Syrian authorities claimed that they had never used chemical weapons against civilians and terrorists and that the country's entire chemical arsenal had been removed from Syria under OPCW control.
GSV "Russia - Islamic World"
Photo: Creative Commons
Based on materials from RIA Novosti