MOSCOW, February 6. /TASS/. Moscow and Damascus reiterate that the use of chemical weapons under any pretext is totally inadmissible, says a joint statement from Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and his Syrian counterpart Faisal Mekdad posted on the website of the Russian Foreign Ministry on Monday.
"Russia and Syria reaffirm the categorical inadmissibility of the use of chemical weapons by anyone, anywhere and under any pretext," the parties stressed in the statement.
As the ministry noted, the foreign ministers of the UK, the US, France, and Germany issued an out of touch statement on the April 7, 2018 chemical provocation in the city of Douma organized by the White Helmets, an NGO affiliated with the Syrian armed opposition.
In doing so, they showed support for the January 27 report of the Investigation and Identification Team (IIT), imposed by the West on the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, the ministry said. The report concerned "an alleged chemical attack by the Syrian Air Force against civilians in the city and alleged Russian cover-up."
The Foreign Ministry stressed that it regarded the statement as yet another step towards increasing pressure on Russia and Syria.
"We believe that the publication of yet another falsified report on the chemical weapons provocation in the city of Douma is nothing but an attempt to once again justify the act of triple aggression against sovereign Syria committed by the UK, the US and France on April 14, 2018 through a missile strike on the Syrian civil and military infrastructure in violation of the UN Charter and generally recognized international law," the ministry stressed.
"We reiterate in this regard that the IIT was established in violation of the Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC). Despite strong pressure from Western countries, less than half of the states party to the CWC voted in favor of its creation," the statement said.
The Russian and Syrian ministers confirm that the above statement from the four nations comes as "yet further evidence of the hostile intentions of these states towards our two countries, as well as of their destructive policies aimed at creating new crisis situations in the Middle East and in the world in general," the ministry stressed.
It said that Moscow and Damascus reject the accusations and condemn the deceitful statement by the foreign ministers of the UK, the US, France and Germany about what happened in Douma. "Russia and Syria reject the unfounded accusations brought against them, condemn yet another false statement by the UK, the US, France and the Federal Republic of Germany, and confirm the categorical rejection of the policy pursued by these countries aimed at replacing the UN Charter and the generally accepted norms of international law with a certain "rule-based order" that entrusts NATO and EU countries with the dominant role in determining the main parameters of political, economic, scientific and technological, humanitarian and moral development of human civilization," the statement stressed.