VIENNA, April 26. /TASS/. The fact that most members of the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) Investigation and Identification Team come from NATO countries violates the United Nations Charter, Russian Permanent Representative to International Organizations in Vienna Mikhail Ulyanov wrote on Twitter.
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"We have reasons to believe that an absolute majority of members of the Investigation and Identification Team come from NATO countries, which is a violation of the UN Charter and the Chemical Weapons Convention. If this is not true, the OPCW leadership must pronounce itself openly on this principled matter," the tweet reads.
The OPCW Investigation and Identification Team released its first report on April 8, blaming the Syrian authorities for using chemical weapons in March 2017. According to the report, "on March 24, 2017, an Su-22 military airplane belonging to the 50th Brigade of the 22nd Air Division of the Syrian Arab Air Force, departing from Shayrat airbase, dropped an M4000 aerial bomb containing sarin in southern Ltamenah, affecting at least 16 persons." Russia’s mission to the OPCW said that the report was flawed and lacked credibility.
The OPCW in 2018 decided to create an investigation team at the initiative of the United States and the United Kingdom in order to identify those responsible for the use of chemical weapons. Russia strongly opposed the move saying that the Chemical Weapons Convention did not provide for the establishment of such a group and giving additional powers to the group would amount to encroaching on the prerogatives of the United Nations Security Council.
Fixed Ulyanov’s position at 12:43.