BEIRUT, September 4. /TASS/. The West has been politicizing the work of the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) as it makes slanderous accusations against Syria and Russia in order to distort their image, said Syrian Foreign Minister Faisal Mekdad.
Following talks in Damascus with Alexander Shulgin, Russia’s Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary to the Netherlands and Permanent Representative of the Russian Federation to the OPCW, Syria’s top diplomat said: "Syria and Russia coordinate their actions at the OPCW and jointly resist Western pressure." Mekdad also thanked the Russian diplomat for the ongoing support.
The Syrian foreign minister accused the United States and the West of their hostile attitudes toward independent countries which have been standing in the way of their provocative plans. "The existing cooperation between our friendly countries has enabled us to successfully push back against all attacks by our adversaries and disinformation campaigns being organized by them," SANA quoted Faisal as saying. Damascus "is not going to change its resolute position of refraining from the use of chemical weapons and remains committed to adhering with the Chemical Weapons Convention," he insisted.
For his part, Shulgin praised "the way Syria has been implementing its commitments to the OPCW, despite the war being waged against it by gangs of terrorists."
On August 26, the Syrian Foreign Ministry denounced statements by French and US representatives at the OPCW who alleged that the country’s pro-government forces used chemicals as weapons in Eastern Ghouta in 2013. Damascus rejected all other allegations about the use of chemical weapons as fabricated.