Efforts to Organize Consultations with Syria Still Not Successful, Senior Official Tells Security Council, Stressing Cooperation Crucial to Close Chemical Weapon File
The Technical Secretariat of the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons’ (OPCW) efforts to organize the next round of consultations with Syria continue to be unsuccessful, a senior official of the United Nations for Disarmament Affairs told the Security Council today, stressing that full cooperation by Damascus is essential to closing its chemical weapons file.
Adedeji Ebo, Deputy to the High Representative of the United Nations Office for Disarmament Affairs, reported that, because the Syrian National Authorities had not submitted completed declarations, the Technical Secretariat has deployed a reduced team of the Declaration Assessment Team to Syria to conduct limited in-country activities. However, after Damascus proposed a meeting with the Technical Secretariat to develop a new work plan to resolve all issues related to their chemical weapons dossier, a Technical Secretariat delegation met with the country’s representatives in Beirut on 22 and 23 June to agree on a six-month extension to the Tripartite Agreement and to discuss the conduct of the twenty‑fifth round of consultations.
Nonetheless, the declaration submitted by Syria still cannot be considered accurate and complete, he reported, noting that the country has yet to provide sufficient technical information that would enable the Technical Secretariat to close the issue related to the detection of a Schedule 2 chemical at the Barzah facilities at the Scientific Studies and Research Center in November 2018. In addition, the Technical Secretariat is still awaiting information related to the unauthorized movement of two cylinders related to the chemical weapon incident that took place in Douma on 7 April 2018.
Mohamad Katoub, Project Manager at IMPACT — Civil Society Research and Development, speaking via videoconference, warned that the same regime that used chemical weapons with impunity is still in power and the same Russian Federation allies are still supporting Syria’s war criminals. Denial has been the Syrian regime’s strategy, which employs tactics such as manipulating evidence, presenting false witnesses, intimidating witnesses and running media disinformation campaigns, he said.
Yet, despite the Russian Federation’s veto of the OPCW-UN Joint Investigative Mechanism’s mandate renewal, he emphasized that there are ways to bypass a potential veto against referring all perpetrators to the International Criminal Court. There are ways to stop doing nothing. “We will keep the fight to explore concrete ways to reinstate the norm of prohibition of chemical weapons by finding ways to hold all perpetrators to account, by finding States who believe that this exceptional use of [chemical weapons] requires exceptional measures to say ‘no’. No to impunity,” he declared.
In the ensuing debate, many Council members criticized Syria’s lack of cooperation with OPCW as well as its systemic failure to comply with its obligations under the Chemical Weapons Convention and resolutions 2118 (2013). Meanwhile, some speakers urged the Council to reassess the effectiveness of convening monthly meetings on chemical weapons in Syria......
https://press.un.org/en/2023/sc15379.doc.htm
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