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8221st Security Council Meeting: Situation in Middle East
After more than four years of work, the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) was still unable to verify that Syria’s initial declaration on its chemical weapons programme was accurate, delegates told the Security Council today, underlining that questions remained about the use of such weapons in that country.
Discussions between the OPCW Technical Secretariat and the Syrian Government were continuing, although they had not led to the resolution of any of the remaining issues regarding the completeness and accuracy of Syria’s initial declaration, said Thomas Markram, Director and Deputy to the High Representative for Disarmament Affairs.
Stressing that resolving those outstanding issues would allow for shared confidence in Syria’s declaration across the international community, he emphasized: “The persistent allegations of the use of chemical weapons in Syria underscore the need to identify solutions and reach agreement on an appropriate accountability mechanism.”
The OPCW Fact-Finding Mission was continuing its work and was currently in Damascus looking into allegations of the use of chemical weapons that were brought to the attention of the OPCW Director-General by the Government, said Mr. Markram. The next report of the Fact-Finding Mission would be submitted when it considered that it had sufficient information and was in a position to draw a conclusion.
In the meantime, the Syrian Government had continued efforts to destroy the two remaining chemical weapons production facilities in the country, he said, adding that destruction of those facilities was expected to be complete within two to three months from the start date and would be verified by OPCW.
Expressing concern that OPCW was still unable to verify Syria’s initial declaration on its chemical weapons programme, the representative of Sweden noted there were still a number of serious outstanding issues that had yet to be resolved. Specifically, the Director-General last month reported that the initial 5 outstanding questions had grown to 22, including the case of the Syrian Scientific Studies and Research Centre.
Emphasizing that sarin and chlorine stocks did indeed exist in Syria, France’s representative said that the country had either deceived the Council or pursued a clandestine chemical weapons programme. Given those two options, France called on Syria to respond to all unanswered questions, “and there are many of them”. The Damascus-based regime’s responsibility for the use of chemical weapons had been publicly and unambiguously established by the Joint Investigative Mechanism and any attempt to discredit its clear conclusion could not change that reality, he said, stressing that impunity for those who used chemical weapons was not an option.
The speaker for the United States said a few years ago, a single chemical weapons attack would have united the Council in shock and anger, but now there was a regime that used them “practically every other week”. Letting one regime off the hook emboldened others, she said, adding that the world was rapidly sliding back to a time when people lived in fear of colourless, shapeless gas leaving them gasping for air. Her country refused to believe that the Council could not come together once again on chemical weapons, despite differences between its members.
Echoing those concerns, the United Kingdom’s representative noted that, in the absence of the Joint Investigative Mechanism, there was no proper channel to ensure accountability. Substantive gaps, inconsistencies and discrepancies in Syria’s declaration remained and the seriousness of the situation had increased over time. Turning to the recent poisoning in the town of Salisbury in her country, she said no explanation had been provided as to how a military-grade nerve agent had come to be used to sicken two people. There should be no more victims of chemical weapons attacks, whether they took place in the war zones of Syria or in an English town, she stressed.
The representative of the Russian Federation said that the conclusions of the Joint Investigative Mechanism were nothing more than a pre-ordained, pre‑programmed result aimed at accusing the Syrian authorities. The Russian Federation was unable to support extension of the Mechanism’s mandate in an unchanged form, he said, highlighting that his delegation had proposed a specific alternative and circulated a draft resolution which was currently “in blue”.
Syria’s representative said that his Government had fulfilled its commitments under the Chemical Weapons Convention and Council resolution 2118 (2013). It had eliminated its chemical weapons programme in record time, which was a first in the history of OPCW, he stressed, and the Joint Investigative Mechanism had confirmed that fact in its June 2014 report. The Syrian Army did not use chemical weapons nor did it possess them, rather they had been used against civilians by Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL/Da’esh), Nusrah Front and other associated entities.
Also speaking today were the representatives of the Netherlands, Kazakhstan, Kuwait, Ethiopia, China, Bolivia, Côte d’Ivoire, Poland, Equatorial Guinea and Peru.
The meeting began at 10:03 a.m. and ended at 11:47 a.m.