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Russian envoy calls on OPCW to stop making impossible conditions for Syria

Alexander Shulgin said Russia was studying the report released by the OPCW Fact-Finding Mission in Syria on possible use of toxic chemicals in Douma in April 2018, but "has some questions to ask"

THE HAGUE, March 13. /TASS/. Russia is calling on the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) to refrain from making impossible conditions regarding the Syrian chemical dossier, Russia’s Permanent Representative to the organization Alexander Shulgin said on Wednesday.

"We welcome the consultations held in Beirut on February 4-8 between representatives of the Technical Secretariat and the Syrian national body for the implementation of the Chemical Weapons Convention, including on the issue specifying the initial Syrian declaration [on Syria’s declared chemical weapons stockpiles and a list of production and storage facilities made while joining the OPCW - TASS]," Shulgin said.

"We are urging the sides to focus on a technically oriented work aimed at eliminating disputable and overdue issues," Shulgin said at the 90th session of the chemical weapons watchdog’s Executive Council.

"The OPCW Technical Secretariat needs to refrain from making absolutely impossible conditions going beyond the real possibilities, for example to keep demanding confirming documents from Damascus, and sometimes their originals, as if everything was calm in the country and there was no years-long armed conflict," the diplomat said.

Questionable report

The diplomat said that Russia "is studying the report released by the [OPCW] Fact-Finding Mission in Syria investigating possible use of toxic chemicals in Syria’s Douma on April 7, 2018." However, Russia has some questions to ask, he added.

According to Shulgin, the report "says nothing about the main reason behind derailed plans to deploy promptly the mission - which was committed by the United States, the United Kingdom and France in violation of all international legal norms in early hours of April 14 last year in the form of massive air strikes against Syria’s facilities as punishment for the alleged use of chemical weapons," he said.

"Information, which the Technical Secretariat was made aware of at a briefing held on April 26, 2018, on a chemical weapons attack faked by the White Helmets representatives (who, all of a sudden, the FFM members trust implicitly for some reason) has not been considered either," the Russian envoy added.

Shulgin pointed out that "any activity related to the investigation of the chemical weapons crimes should be conducted in strict compliance with the Chemical Weapons Convention, OPCW statutory documents and in strict accordance with the chain of custody."

"The member states should be timely and duly informed about the ongoing work, not only about final results," he said. "It provides a chance to involve the member states’ expert potential in the investigation."

 

Douma incident

The OPCW Fact-Finding Mission (FFM) issued a 100-page final report on March 1, concluding that chlorine was used during the attack in Syria’s Douma on April 7, 2018. The report was submitted to the United Nations Security Council through the UN secretary general.

A number of NGOs, including the White Helmets, alleged that chemical weapons had been used in Douma, Eastern Ghouta, on April 7, 2018. According to a statement uploaded to that organization’s website on April 8, chlorine bombs had been dropped on the city, which caused dozens of fatalities. The Russian Foreign Ministry dismissed this as fake news. Representatives of the Russian Center for Reconciliation of Opposing Sides in Syria visited the site on April 9, but did not find any signs of chemical weapons having being used.

On April 14, 2018 the United States, the United Kingdom and France launched missile strikes on Syria’s military and civilian infrastructure facilities without the UN Security Council’s permission. The strikes targeted a scientific and research center in Damascus, the Republican Guard’s headquarters, an air defense base, several airfields and army depots. According to the Russian Defense Ministry, Syrian air defenses managed to shoot down 71 out of 103 missiles. Washington, London and Paris claimed the strikes were a response to an alleged chemical weapons attack in the Syrian town of Douma on April 7, 2018.