THE HAGUE, October 14. /TASS/. The Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) needs to start remediating the flaws in the work of its Fact-Finding Mission (FFM) in Syria without delay, Russian Permanent Representative to the organization Alexander Shulgin said at the 92nd meeting of the OPCW Executive Council. The text of his speech was published by the Russian embassy in the Netherlands on Monday.
According to the diplomat, it is time for the OPCW Technical Secretariat "to start to rectify the situation with the mission’s work." "We acknowledge the FFM’s efforts, which is working in extremely difficult conditions," he said. "Nevertheless, just like some other delegations, we have lots of complaints about the FFM’s activities."
"Bringing the FFM’s work practice in compliance with the norms and requirements of the Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC) remains a critical task. Unfortunately, this is not the case now. Remote investigations without travelling to the scene of the incident and obtaining material evidence from dubious sources, to be more precise, from ‘third parties,’ has become a routine practice," he said.
Russia fully supports its Syrian counterparts on the issue of FFM’s terms of reference, Shulgin went on to say. "The need to do that has long been overdue," he stressed. "Only by revising that basic document taking into account the accumulated experience, will allow us to hope that the FFM will improve the efficiency of its work. Until this problem is solved, we will be raising the issue of unconvincing investigations again and again. That has an adverse effect on the atmosphere within our organization and its standing in the global community."
The Russian envoy stressed that his criticism was by no means aimed at discrediting the Fact-Finding Mission, but, vice versa, seeks to optimize its work and bring it into full compliance with the convention and the contemporary realities.