MOSCOW, June 30. /TASS/. A change in the mandate of the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), which assumes accusatory functions, pursues a goal of weakening the United Nations Security Council, Russia’s Federation Council Speaker Valentina Matviyenko said on Rossiya’1 TV channel in the Vesti on Saturday with Sergei Brilev news program.
"Quite recently, news has broken about a change in the mandate of the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons. This fact has not had any precedents, since this purely expert technical organization has been practically entrusted with prosecution duties, which is actually an attempt to weaken the UN Security Council by depriving it of this function," she said.
The Russian upper house speaker pointed out that currently the world was facing "a very serious situation when international institutions, international agreements and international rules are being destroyed." She added that they "have been responsible for guarding the world against chaos."
On Wednesday, the OPCW adopted a UK-sponsored draft proposal on changing its mandate. The changes will imply the acquisition of accusatory functions.
The document rallied the support of 82 members, while another 24 members voted against it.
The expansion means the technical secretariat of the organization will devise a mechanism of identification of those who allegedly used chemical weapons in Syria. This should be done through an exposure of information on the origins of chemical substances - even in the situations where neither UN nor OPCW investigators drafted appropriate reports on presumed incidents.