THE HAGUE, November 24. /TASS/. The Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) doesn’t consider any initiatives that do not align with Western interests, Russian Deputy Minister of Industry and Trade Kirill Lysogorsky said.
"It should be noted that the OPCW ignores all initiatives that do not reflect the interests of Western countries," he said at the 30th annual conference of the OPCW member countries.
As an example, Lysogorsky recalled how Iran’s proposal to discuss safety of civilian chemical facilities was rejected without debate during the 67th OPCW council special session.
"What is also being ignored are requests by a number of delegations to discuss the mandate of the Office of Special Missions, created by the head of the Technical Secretariat, in particular how its mandate ‘to attribute" responsibility complies with provisions of the Chemical Weapons Convention," the deputy minister said.
He emphasized that Russia reaffirms its principled stance not to recognize the attribution mechanism, which implies investigations into reported use of chemical weapons and the search for those "guilty."
The 30th annual conference of the OPCW member countries is taking place in The Hague between November 24 and 28.