UN / SYRIA

The High Representative for Disarmament Affairs Izumi Nakamitsu told the Security Council that “unfortunately, the Syrian Arab Republic continues to place conditions” on the chemical weapons Declaration Assessment Team (DAT) deployment to the country. UNIFEED

• Categories: News & Features / News Stories / Unifeed
• Video Length: 00:02:27
• Production Date: 29 September 2022
• Asset Language: Arabic; English
• Personal Subject: IZUMI NAKAMITSU
• Corporate Name: ORGANISATION FOR THE PROHIBITION OF CHEMICAL WEAPONS - OPCW; SECURITY COUNCIL
• Subject Topical: CHEMICAL WEAPONS; DISARMAMENT; PEACE AND SECURITY
• Geographic Subject: SYRIA
• MAMS Id: 2941600
• Parent Id: 2941600
• Alternate Title: unifeed220929c

Description

STORY: UN / SYRIA
TRT: 02:27
SOURCE: UNIFEED
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGES: ENGLISH / ARABIC / NATS

DATELINE: 27 SEPTEMBER 2022, NEW YORK CITY / FILE

Shotlist

FILE - NEW YORK CITY

1. Wide shot, UN Headquarters

15 SEPTEMBER 2022, NEW YORK CITY

2. Wide shot, Security Council
3. SOUNDBITE (English) Izumi Nakamitsu, High Representative for Disarmament Affairs, United Nations:
“Unfortunately, the Syrian Arab Republic continues to place conditions on the DATs deployment, in contravention of its declaration related obligations, as well as its obligations to cooperate with the OPCW as stipulated under the Chemical Weapons Convention, the decisions of the OPCW policymaking organs, and of course relevant resolutions of the Security Council.”
4. Wide shot, Council
5. SOUNDBITE (English) Izumi Nakamitsu, High Representative for Disarmament Affairs, United Nations:
“The OPCW technical Secretariat has proposed to address the shortcomings of serious initial declaration through the exchange of correspondence, even if such exchanges demonstratively bring fewer outcomes when compared to the DATs deployments to the Syrian Arab Republic, as was the case in the period between June 2016 and April 2019.”
6. Wide shot, Council
7. SOUNDBITE (Arabic) Bassam Sabbagh, Permanent Representative to the United Nations, Syrian Arab Republic:
“We would also like to stress that there are no restrictions on the deployment of the DAT. We believe that the exclusion of one person from that team should not prevent the holding of that round especially that the organization has so many qualified experts who can undertake the same task.”
8. Wide shot, Council
9. SOUNDBITE (Arabic) Bassam Sabbagh, Permanent Representative to the United Nations, Syrian Arab Republic:
“The Syrian Arab Republic repeated time and again it's unequivocal condemnation of the use of chemical weapons by anyone anywhere at any time and under any circumstances. Therefore, we categorically reject all those baseless accusations by some countries for the most the United States of America, which is supporting the terrorist groups that use chemical weapons in Syria.”
10. Wide shot, Council

Storyline

The High Representative for Disarmament Affairs Izumi Nakamitsu today (29 Sep) told the Security Council that “unfortunately, the Syrian Arab Republic continues to place conditions” on the chemical weapons Declaration Assessment Team (DAT) deployment to the country.

Briefing the Council on the issue of chemical weapons in Syria, Nakamitsu stressed that this is, “in contravention of its declaration related obligations, as well as its obligations to cooperate with the OPCW as stipulated under the Chemical Weapons Convention, the decisions of the OPCW policymaking organs, and of course relevant resolutions of the Security Council.”

The Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) Technical Secretariat is seeking information from Syria regarding the unauthorised movement and remains of two destroyed cylinders related to the 7 April 2018 chemical weapons incident in Douma.

The DAT had been unable to hold a of consultations with Syrian authorities in Damascus because of the unwillingness of the Syrian government to issue a visa to one member of the DAT.

Nakamitsu said, “the OPCW technical Secretariat has proposed to address the shortcomings of Syria’s initial declaration through the exchange of correspondence, even if such exchanges demonstratively bring fewer outcomes when compared to the DATs deployments to the Syrian Arab Republic, as was the case in the period between June 2016 and April 2019.”

Syrian Ambassador Bassam Sabbagh, for his part told the Council that “there are no restrictions on the deployment of the DAT.”

Sabbagh said, “we believe that the exclusion of one person from that team should not prevent the holding of that round especially that the organization has so many qualified experts who can undertake the same task.”

The Ambassador said, “the Syrian Arab Republic repeated time and again it's unequivocal condemnation of the use of chemical weapons by anyone anywhere at any time and under any circumstances. Therefore, we categorically reject all those baseless accusations by some countries for the most the United States of America, which is supporting the terrorist groups that use chemical weapons in Syria.”

The DAT was established 2014 to engage the relevant Syrian authorities to resolve the identified gaps and inconsistencies in the Syrian declaration to the OPCW-UN Joint Investigative Mechanism (JIM).