Syrian Arab News Agency S A N A
Damascus, SANA- “Syria does not recognize the OPCW (Investigation and Identification Team), nor its previous and subsequent reports, because it was established based on pressure exerted by the United States, France and Britain for special purposes in clear violation of the Chemical Weapons Convention,” Syria’s Permanent Representative to the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) in The Hague, Ambassador Milad Attia said.
“Syria calls on the technical secretariat of the OPCW to stop its bias towards Western positions and not to issue replica reports of those prepared for it by Western countries and “Israel” against Syria,” Ambassador Attia added during a press conference held Thursday at the building of the Foreign and Expatriates Ministry.
Attia elaborated “We followed the issuance of the third report of the so-called (Investigation and Identification Team) at the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), which accuses Syria of using chemicals in the alleged Douma incident on April 7, 2018.”
The Syrian diplomat affirmed that Syria does not recognize the team, nor the reports previously issued by it, nor those that will be issued later, because it was established based on pressure exerted by the United States, France and Britain for their own purposes, in clear and explicit violation of the Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC).
Attia made it clear that Syria acceded to the Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC) in 2013, and based on a voluntary and strategic decision, it destroyed its entire stockpile of chemical weapons in a record time of “six months” despite the difficult circumstances it was going through, and the United Nations and the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons confirmed this matter.
He pointed out that Syria has always renewed its firm position in condemning the use of chemical weapons anywhere, at any time, by anyone and under any circumstances.
Attia noted that Syria cooperated with the OPCW, facilitated the visits of its teams to all regions and places that they requested to visit, and provided all the facilitations and protection required for the success of its tasks and work despite the difficult circumstances imposed by the war on Syria.
He added that there are many violations and serious defects in the methods of work and investigations in the work of the Fact-Finding Mission which affected the credibility of its reports and prevented it from carrying out its role and mandate, and what is the stipulated for in the Chemical Weapons Convention, in addition to not adhering to the terms of reference that were agreed upon between Syria and the technical secretariat of the organization.
The permanent representative of Syria to the OPCW added that the resolution adopted by the 4th special session of the Conference of the States Parties on June 27, 2018, according to which the so-called “Investigation and Identification Team” was established constituted a dangerous turning point in the history of the organization, because it reflected the state of politicization carried out by the United States and Western countries to push the organization to engage in political aspects, and to interfere in the affairs of countries whose policies do not agree with the policy of Washington and its allies.
Attia clarified that at that time, less than half of the 82 member states out of 193 countries voted in favor of the aforementioned resolution, and the positions of the countries that voted against it, abstained from voting, or were absent were not taken into account, and this team made no effort in preparing its reports other than relying on Western sources and terrorist organizations such as the “Jabhat al-Nusra” and its affiliate “White Helmets”, which made them lack objective evidence and do not enjoy the minimum level of objectivity and scientific and professional foundations.
Attia stated that the report was based mostly on information obtained from countries hostile to Syria and some other entities and “open sources”, which are media outlets and social networking sites run by terrorist organizations, including the “Jabhat al-Nusra” that is on the Security Council’s list of terrorist entities, in addition to information from intelligence sources belonging to countries hostile to Syria, all participated in the fabrication of this alleged incident and other incidents to accuse Syria of using chemicals.
Attia said that the United States, Britain, France, Germany, Turkey and Qatar, in addition to other countries, rushed to issue statements full of misleading and distorting facts about the aforementioned report, which are false accusations aimed at increasing pressure and escalating Western positions hostile to Syria.
He stressed that these countries are the same countries that practiced aggression against Syria in all its forms and supported terrorist groups, including Daesh (ISIS) and Jabhat al-Nusra, with all military, logistical, media and intelligence means, in an attempt to destroy the Syrian state.
The permanent representative to the OPCW stated that the United States, Britain and France launched a few days after the alleged Douma incident on April 14, 2018, a barbaric tripartite aggression against Syrian territory, under false pretexts and even without waiting for any investigations into this incident, and now those countries are exploiting this report issued by the OPCW to justify their aggression against Syria at that time, and to increase political pressure and impose more sanctions and siege.
Attia said that the scenarios and fabrications of using chemicals by Syria in some areas that were under the control of terrorist groups are not new, as these groups and their supporters were promoting these fabrications before every meeting of the Security Council, the Human Rights Council, or the OPCW.
Attia renewed Syria’s demand for the OPCW technical secretariat stop its bias towards Western positions and not to issue misleading reports and replicas of those prepared for it by Western countries and “Israel” against Syria, in order to preserve the organization’s credibility, professionalism, impartiality, and future, and the need to preserve its technical nature and prevent cases of politicization and polarization.
Ruaa al-Jazaeri
