THE HAGUE, October 13. /TASS/. Disagreements persist at the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), but many countries intend to find solutions to them, Russia’s Permanent Representative to the OPCW Alexander Shulgin told TASS on Saturday commenting on the 92nd session of OPCW Executive Council in The Hague.
Shulgin said that the session showed that "many states show demand for solutions to the problems emerging in the organization because of certain countries’ attempts to politicize its work and for the return to the practice of taking decisions by consensus, which would effectively help cope with the challenges of proliferation and the use of chemical weapons."
Along with this, the diplomat pointed out that some disagreements remain in place.
In particular, the session "entered into an unpleasant discussion designating those guilty for the use of chemical weapons, or the so-called attribution imposed by western countries," he said.
"We confirmed our distaste for this activity that runs counter to the Chemical Weapons Convention and encroaches on the authority of the United Nations Security Council," Shulgin said.
"A lot of time in the recent discussion was given to the Syrian ‘chemical dossier’," the Russian envoy continued. "We again placed an emphasis on vicious methods of the [OPCW] Fact-Finding Mission (FFM) looking into possible use of toxic chemicals in Syria. We came forward with vivid examples of this when they turn a blind eye in response to blatant falsification (as in Douma in April 2018). We demanded once more that the FFM activity be brought in line with the Convention requirements.".