MOSCOW, March 2. /TASS/. Russia is calling on other countries to prevent the final degradation of the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), which Western states have turned into a tool to advance their own geopolitical interests inside and outside the Middle East, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov told the Conference on Disarmament in Geneva on Thursday.
The state of affairs in the OPCW is a cause of deep concern in Moscow, the diplomat stressed.
"Western nations have turned this once respected and purely technical international structure into a tool to advance their geopolitical interests in the Middle East and beyond. This primarily concerns the West's far-fetched Syrian ‘chemical dossier’ and the illegitimate attribution of the use of toxic chemicals and chemical warfare agents imposed on the OPCW in violation of the Chemical Weapons Convention," he pointed out.
The senior diplomat emphasized that the result of these ‘attribution’ initiatives was the decision, pushed through by Euro-Atlantic allies at the Conference of the States Parties in April 2021, to suspend Syria’s rights and privileges in the OPCW.
These destructive activities by the West have resulted in "a split in the OPCW, the loss of its independent status and authority as a generally recognized expert agency on the track of chemical disarmament and nonproliferation," Ryabkov said. "We urge the CWC parties that are not indifferent to the fate of this previously successful disarmament mechanism to prevent its final degradation," Ryabkov summed up.