MOSCOW, March 14. /TASS/. The member states of the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) believe that the UN Security Council is the only body authorized to determine responsibility for the use of chemical weapons, according to a statement made by the permanent representatives for the CSTO countries on collective security in the UN. Its text was published on the website of the Russian Foreign Ministry on Thursday.
According to the document, the CSTO regards the Convention on the Prohibition of the Development, Production, Stockpiling and Use of Chemical Weapons and on their Destruction (CWC) as one of the most successful multilateral mechanisms in the sphere of disarmament and non-proliferation. "We note with satisfaction that 193 states are members of the convention. It shows the general recognition of the CWC’s important role," the statement says.
"We consider the UN Security Council as the only body authorized to determine responsibility for illegal actions with chemical weapons," the document states. "We stress the inadmissibility of the transformation of the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, which is a purely technical structure, into the body that doubles the authorities of the UN Security Council, as well as the creation of precedents in the international legal practice which make it possible to accord other international structures the authorities of the UN Security Council."
The CSTO member states noted with regret that abandoning the principle of making consensus decisions endangers the integrity of the organization itself. "We particularly stress the necessity to join the efforts of the CWC participants in order to turn the work of the organization back to the depoliticized track of chemical disarmament in strict compliance with the provisions of the convention," the document says.