Syria’s Permanent Representative to the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), Bassam Sabbagh, affirmed that Syria rejects any conclusion to be issued by a fact-finding mission whose creation has constituted an unprecedented incident by commissioning a technical organization with matters that are within the competence of the UN Security Council.
Sabbagh, in Syria’s statement to the 24th conference of the States Parties to the Chemical Weapons Convention in the Hauge on Tuesday, announced that Syria, which acceded to the Convention in 2013, has fulfilled all its obligations resulting from this accession and has succeeded in the destruction of its chemical weapons and production facilities under difficult and complex conditions.
“Syria has fulfilled its obligations arising from its accession to the Convention and renews its keenness to continue constructive cooperation with the Technical Secretariat and its various teams,” he said.
Shabbagh added that Syria supports making the Middle East a zone free of weapons of mass destruction and this will not be achieved without Israel obliging to join the Convention.
He renewed Syria’s calls for confronting the expansion of the chemical terrorist threats and taking a decisive stance towards countries that cover terrorist crimes.
The Permanent Representative reiterated Syria’s condemnation of using chemical weapons under any circumstances and rejected attempts by some countries to accuse Syria, saying that these accusations serve their own agendas.
“With every military achievement against terrorists or advance in the political process, Washington deliberately works on misleading public opinion with the aim of creating pretexts for launching attacks on Syrian territory,” he said.
The diplomat said that the fact-finding mission report on Douma adopted the theory of distorting reality and this is scientifically unacceptable as the leaked e-mail of one of the mission’s inspectors eliminates any credibility of the report.
Sabbagh said that Syria renews its call on the OPCW to send a fact-finding mission to the areas liberated by the army to investigate the incidents that previously occurred in these areas.
He emphasized Syria’s call on the organization to double its efforts to invite countries that have not yet joined the Convention to join as soon as possible, to guarantee the establishment of an effective global regime against chemical weapons.
Last week, Syria welcomed the convening of a conference on establishing a zone free of weapons of mass destruction in the Middle East; an implementation of the decision taken by the 73rd session of United Nations General Assembly and hopes that it will represent a step in the right direction. Sabbagh concluded.
This article was edited by The Syrian Observer. The Syrian Observer has not verified the content of this story. Responsibility for the information and views set out in this article lies entirely with the author.
