MOSCOW, November 22. /TASS/. The decision to grant the OPCW the right to assign blame for alleged chemical attacks may be used as a pretext for the use of force against countries without permission from the UN Security Council, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova told the media on Thursday. "It cannot be ruled out that its conclusions might be used as a pretext for using force regardless of the opinion of the UN Security Council. The responsibility for undermining the OPCW rests squarely on the United States, Britain and France."
Zakharova said the western "troika" had achieved the desirable effect exclusively through a massive disinformation campaign and political and financial pressure on a number of countries.
"We regret that the countries taking an equidistant stance this time turned out unable to resist provocative western schemes," she said. "Blackmailing and ultimatums based on groundless charges have become Washington’s, London’s and Paris’s easily recognizable calling card."
"The results of the voting in the OPCW unequivocally demonstrated that far from all participants in that organization share the Western countries’ attitude to the organization’s role, tasks and purposes," Zakharova said. "The illegitimate decision on attribution that has been pushed through is not just harmful. It is a crushing blow on a once successful organization and it merely exacerbates the split among the member-countries."
Zakharova confirmed Moscow was prepared to act in concert with its allies and associates "to resist destructive Western policies aimed eroding the basics of international law and multilateral agreements."
"On all platforms we will be explaining in very clear terms and with the use of solid arguments how harmful it will be to try to use for political purposes the most serious issue of struggle against the use of chemical weapons.
Situation in OPCW
On November 20, the OPCW in defiance of Russia’s objections voted for a decision to increase the organization’s budget by 2.4 million euros (to 69.7 million euros). The surplus will be used for creating a special attribution group.
Russia firmly opposed the idea of turning the OPCW into a punitive body, because the right to assign blame for chemical attacks will be crude interference in the realm of exclusive prerogatives of the UN Security Council. Also, attribution is not envisaged by the Chemical Weapons Convention, and the decision to create the attribution mechanism was approved last June by a minority of members (82 countries of the 193 voted for the decision, but that turned out enough, because the abstentions were not taken into account).