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8390th Security Council Meeting: Situation in Middle East; Syria
Reiterating Denials, Syria’s Permanent Representative Accuses Western States of Supporting Foreign Terrorist Fighters in His Country
The senior United Nations disarmament affairs official warned today that the Security Council must remain united against the use of chemical weapons, a crime that must always be viewed as a violation of a “deeply held taboo”.
“So long as the use of chemical weapons is ongoing, or the threat of their use lingers, we must retain our focus on this issue and not allow ourselves to become inured to it,” said Izumi Nakamitsu, High Representative for Disarmament Affairs.
Briefing the 15-member Council on efforts to investigate several allegations of chemical weapons use in Syria, she described efforts by her office, alongside the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), to clarify outstanding issues related to Syria’s declaration and elimination of chemical weapons stockpiles in 2013. While citing “remaining gaps, inconsistencies and discrepancies” in that process, she also welcomed efforts by the OPCW fact-finding mission in Syria to investigate reported chemical weapons use in the town of Douma and elsewhere. She also spotlighted a recent decision to task the OPCW with identifying perpetrators in such cases under certain circumstances.
As Council members took the floor to express their views, several delegates echoed the High Representative’s concerns about reported plans to use chemical weapons in Idlib Province, home to some 3 million civilians where a tenuous ceasefire continues to forestall a military escalation. Some speakers voiced concern that long-established norms against the use of chemical weapons seem to be eroding, while others warned that the decision to task the OPCW with identifying perpetrators transfers power away from the Security Council and could risk politicizing crucial investigations.
Bolivia’s representative encouraged the Government of Syria to clarify the concerns raised by the OPCW. Given that the use of chemical weapons is a serious violation of international law “and life itself”, all perpetrators must be held accountable, and the Council must remain unified in support of an impartial investigation aimed at identifying and holding perpetrators to account, he added. While expressing regret over the transfer of that responsibility to the OPCW, he underlined the importance of exercising full respect for Syria’s sovereignty and territorial integrity, upholding the Idlib agreement and making progress on the political process.
Meanwhile, the United Kingdom’s representative said it defies belief that the Council remains unable to take unified action to uphold the international prohibition on chemical weapons. The eradication of such horrible instruments must be a universal goal, she stressed, noting that it is particularly regrettable that the Russian Federation’s veto blocked the renewal of a mechanism designed to attribute such crimes to identified perpetrators. In that vein, she expressed support for the new OPCW mandate to attribute responsibility for the use of chemical weapons and called for the funding needed to fulfil that task.
The representative of the United States, warning against any military escalation in Idlib, expressed his delegation’s support for the political progress as the best way to prevent any situation whereby the regime of President Bashar al-Assad might once again use chemical weapons against its own people. Voicing strong support for the OPCW fact-finding mission and for the attribution arrangements put in place for situations in which the mission identifies a high likelihood that chemical weapons have been used, he called upon Council members to unite in support of the norm – long accepted by all – “that chemical weapons have no place in our world”.
However, the Russian Federation’s delegate described the Council’s consideration of so-called chemical weapons use in Syria as a political tool wielded by some countries against others. Syria destroyed its chemical weapons stockpiles under OPCW oversight, he recalled, noting that there have been no indications of undeclared activities. The matter has been artificially maintained on the OPCW agenda with the single goal of tainting the reputation of the Government of Syria, he added. Citing reports that “White Helmet” activists are seeking civilians willing to participate in staged chemical weapons attacks in return for food, he said such actions are mere pretexts for certain States to launch operations against Syria and prove that the Russian Federation is colluding with a “heinous criminal regime”, he said.
Syria’s representative traced the movement of terrorist fighters from other parts of the world to his country with support from Western States, and said that the same countries manipulate the Council to further their own political agendas. Citing atrocities committed by coalition forces – as demonstrated by the recent discovery of mass civilian graves in Raqqa – he called upon the Council to end the illicit, aggressive actions of the United States and other foreign forces on his country’s soil. Syria has addressed all so-called “outstanding issues” and has never used chemical weapons, he stressed, vowing to combat terrorists in his country despite ongoing “political bribery”.
Also speaking were representatives of France, Kuwait, Côte d’Ivoire, Equatorial Guinea, Peru, Poland, Kazakhstan, Sweden, Ethiopia, Netherlands and China.
The meeting began at 10:26 a.m. and ended at 12:03 p.m.
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