Syria raps OPCW for adopting resolution under Western pressure

Syria has lashed out at the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) over its recent resolution blaming Damascus for alleged use of chemical weapons in 2017.

News ID: 450460

Date: 14 July 2020 - 17:55

Rasa - In a statement on Monday, the Syrian Foreign Ministry accused the OPCW of adopting the resolution under blackmail, threat and pressures by some western countries, particularly the US, Britain and France.

“The resolution illegally targets the right of Syria, a member in the organization and a party in the Chemical Weapons Convention, which has fulfilled its commitments in light of its access to the Convention,” the statement noted.

The statement added that the OPCW decision was based on misleading reports prepared by the “illegal” Investigation and Identification Team (IIT) regarding three alleged uses of chemical weapons in Hama province in March 2017.

The statement came a few days after the executive branch of the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) voted 29 to three, with nine abstentions in favor of the decision to condemn Syria for, what the organization’s so-called investigators have called, use of chemical arms on the militant-held town of Lataminah in the western Hama region in March 2017.

Russia, Iran, and China voted against the resolution, while 9 other states abstained from voting.

The meeting of the politically-divided 41-member Executive Council of the OPCW in The Hague followed a report in April by the OPCW’s Investigation and Identification Team (IIT), which claimed Syrian military planes and a helicopter had use banned sarin and chlorine bombs on Lataminah.

Over the past years, terrorists on various occasions carried out gas attacks and accused Damascus of the incidents. Syria had surrendered its entire chemical stockpile in 2013 to a mission led by the OPCW and the UN.