New York, SANA – Head of the UN-Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) Joint Investigative Mechanism (JIM), Edmond Mulet, said the JIM has come under pressure by UN Security Council members to follow their instructions and reach “acceptable” conclusions.
Speaking to the Russian news agency Sputnik, Mulet stressed that attempts to influence the Mechanism’s work has come from direct contact with Council members.
“We are pulled from one side and then from the other, telling us how to do our business. If you don’t do it this way you have no credibility, if you don’t follow our instructions because we are a member of the P5 [Permanent members of the United Nations Security Council] then we will not accept your conclusions,” Mulet added.
He stressed that countries should act in a united front to stop the use of chemical weapons from happening instead of using the chemical files for their own political gains.
Ulyanov: UN-OPCW Joint Investigative Mechanism’s report on Khan Sheikhoun incident politically biased
In the same context, Director of the Foreign Ministry Department for Non-Proliferation and Arms Control Mikhail Ulyanov stressed that the conclusions of the UN-OPCW Joint Investigative Mechanism (JIM) about the incident in Khan Sheikhoun are “amateurish” and “politically biased”.
In a statement to the Russian Tass news agency, Ulyanov said “There is an impression that the United States was able to look through the document in advance and was reasonably alarmed that the JIM work would be subject to more criticism after its publication.”
“That is what actually happened as the document is amateurish and was written as a political put-up job,” he added
“In seeking an extension of the mandate of the OPCW-UN Joint Investigative Mechanism (JIM), the US in fact wants to leave everything as it is, with all drawbacks,” said Ulyanov, adding that “They want to fix in the resolution a free hand for the mechanism, to see it operate absolutely uncontrollably.”
M. al-Frieh/H. Said/R.Raslan/Mazen