Middle East (Syria Chemical Weapons) - Security Council Open VTC

Impunity in use of chemical weapons must not be tolerated, High Representative for Disarmament Affairs underlines, briefing Security Council on Syria.

• Categories: Meetings & Events / Security Council
• Video Length: 01:40:14
• Production Date: 3 February 2021
• Asset Language: Arabic; Chinese; English; French; Russian; Spanish
• Personal Subject: BARBARA WOODWARD; IZUMI NAKAMITSU
• Corporate Name: ORGANISATION FOR THE PROHIBITION OF CHEMICAL WEAPONS - OPCW
• Subject Topical: CHEMICAL WEAPONS; CORONAVIRUS DISEASE - COVID 19; INTERNATIONAL LAW; PEACE AND SECURITY
• Geographic Subject: SYRIA
• MAMS Id: 2601064
• Parent Id: 2600730

Description

The senior United Nations disarmament official urged the Security Council to unite and ensure that the use of chemical weapons shall never be tolerated, as she briefed the 15-member organ during a videoconference today on efforts by the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) to verify the destruction of Syria’s chemical weapons stockpiles and production facilities.

Izumi Nakamitsu, Under-Secretary-General and High Representative for Disarmament Affairs, said that the COVID-19 pandemic continues to hamper the ability of OPCW’s Investigation and Identification Team — tasked with identifying the perpetrators of the use of chemical weapons in Syria — to deploy in that country.

She also urged Syria to fully cooperate with the OPCW Technical Secretariat to address 19 issues still outstanding from its initial declaration on its chemical weapons programme, submitted to OPCW in The Hague in 2013. One of those issues is at the heart of a request by the OPCW Technical Secretariat for details about chemical agents produced or weaponized at a facility which, according to Damascus, has never been used for chemical weapons.

“I say this every month because it bears consistent repeating: There is an urgent need to not only identify but hold accountable all those who have used chemical weapons in violation of international law,” the High Representative said, introducing the eighty-eighth monthly report of the OPCW Director-General, pursuant to Council resolution 2118 (2013), on the elimination of the Syrian chemical weapons programme (see document S/2021/84).

“Without such action, we are allowing the use of chemical weapons to take place with impunity. It is imperative that this Council show leadership in demonstrating that impunity in the use of these weapons will not be tolerated,” she said, adding that the Secretary-General, in his address to Member States on 28 January, had underscored the need for Council unity to address today’s roiling threats to peace and security.

She urged Damascus to cooperate fully with the OPCW Technical Secretariat, which stands by its assessment that — due to unresolved gaps, inconsistencies and discrepancies — Syria’s initial declaration cannot be considered accurate and complete, as it is required to be under the Convention on the Prohibition of the Development, Production, Stockpiling and Use of Chemical Weapons and of Their Destruction.

She added, as she has said in the past, that international confidence in the full elimination of Syria’s weapons programme hinges upon OPCW being able to resolve the outstanding issues. “I hope that during the next round of consultations between the [OPCW] Declaration Assessment Team and the Syrian National Authority, to be held later this month, further progress will be made to resolve these issues,” she added.

The ensuing debate laid bare once again sharp divisions within the Council on the Syrian chemical weapons dossier.

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