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Middle East and North Africa

Russia calls on UN Security Council to offer political support to Syria’s chemical weapons disposal

Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov met with Syrian authorities and opposition

Photo ITAR-TASS/Sergei Karpov

Photo ITAR-TASS/Sergei Karpov

MOSCOW, September 19 (Itar-Tass) - The United Nations Security Council must offer political support to the process of chemical weapons disposal in Syria, the Russian Foreign Ministry said on Thursday after a visit by Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov to Damascus.

Ryabkov met with Syrian President Bashsar Assad, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign and Expatriate Affairs Walid al-Moallem, First Deputy Foreign Minister Faisal Mekdad, and with top-ranking national security officials.

The Russian top-ranking diplomat also met with the leader of the Popular Front for Change and Liberation, Qadri Jamil, and leaders of the National Coordination Committee.

Key focus at these talks was made on the Russia-U.S. agreements on the disposal of the Syrian chemical weapons reached in Geneva on September 14, 2013,” the Russian Foreign Ministry said. “The Russian diplomat afforded detailed explanation of all issues related to this framework document.”

“It was stressed that the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons must play a central role in the process of the disposal of Syria’s chemical weapons in line with the Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC), the accession of which the Syrian government announced on September 12, 2013,” the ministry noted. “The United Nations Security Council must render political support to this process and ensure relevant logistic and expert assistance.”

The Syrian side “reiterated the high assessment of the Geneva agreements and the strong commitment to fulfill its obligations under the Chemical Weapons Convention,” the ministry said. The sides “agreed that only after the United Nations expert mission finishes its investigation into the possible use of chemical weapons in Syria in line with the agreement reached between Syria and the United Nations on July 25, 2013, a final report about the mission results could be made.”

Both sides agreed that there were no alternative to the political settlement of the Syrian crisis on the basis of the Geneva communiqué· of June 30, 2012. “In this context, they stressed the necessity to promptly convene an international conference on Syria,” the ministry said. “The Syrian leaders once again reiterated their commitment to send a representative authorized delegation to Geneva without any preliminary conditions.”

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