MOSCOW, July 30. /TASS/. Russia is hoping that acknowledging that facts about the incident in Syria’s Douma in April 2018 were manipulated will pave the way to depoliticize the work of the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), the Russian foreign ministry said in a comment issued Thursday.
The statement comes as US The Nation oldest weekly magazine published an article on July 24 which, the ministry noted, "in much detail reconstructed the real picture about the manipulations" that the OPCW special mission for the Douma chemical incident resorted to when drafting its report.
"Despite the fact that all these facts are rather widely known already, they made their way onto the pages of such a reputable western publication for the first time," the ministry added. "We are hoping that this very unpleasant story will be resolved to return the work of the OPCW to the professional, depoliticized and technical sphere, as it is stipulated by the Chemical Weapons Convention."
The diplomatic agency pointed out that the manipulations described have been much talked about by a lot of international independent experts, public and political figures and media representatives for the second year running. "It even came down to a collective appeal to the parties to the Chemical Weapons Convention and personally to the UN Secretary-General as its depositary, containing a call to get to the bottom of the situation and adopt urgent measures to recover trust in the OPCW Technical Secretariat," the foreign ministry recalled.
Russia and like-minded countries are constantly raising this issue in the OPCW, the comment says, however, no intelligible reaction to the numerous appeals followed.
"It seems that they are simply trying to hush up the problem, to prevent this unsightly story from developing further, as it proves that OPCW specialist reports are deliberately distorted to particularly justify actions of the US, the UK and France who launched missile strikes against a sovereign state in violation of the UN Charter and universally accepted international law. Iraq and Libya, for example, serve as great examples of what comes out of such military and political provocations and adventures," the text reads.
Douma incident
A number of non-governmental organizations, including the White Helmets, alleged that chemical weapons were used in Douma, Eastern Ghouta, on April 7, 2018. According to a statement on the organization’s website, chlorine bombs had been dropped on the city, which caused dozens of fatalities. Many other civilians were rumored to have been taken to hospital. Representatives of the Russian Centre for the Reconciliation of Opposing Sides in Syria investigated Douma but did not find any traces of chemical weapons.
On April 14, 2018, the US, the UK and France delivered massive missile strikes at targets in Syria without the UN Security Council’s mandate. The scientific and research center in Damascus, the Syrian Republican Guard headquarters, an air defense base, a few military airfields and army warehouses came under attack. According to the Russian Defense Ministry information, Syria managed to shoot down 71 cruise missiles out of 103 that were launched on April 14 to hit targets in Syria. Washington, London and Paris claimed the strikes had come as a response to an alleged use of chemical weapons in Douma.
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 and specifically states that the cylinders containing chemicals that were found at the incident site were airdropped.
However, a new report signed by OPCW expert Ian Henderson emerged on the Internet in May, stating that both cylinders were likely to be placed at the incident site rather than airdropped. These conclusions support Russia and Syria’s version that the incident was staged, however, they were not included in the final report of the organization.