Russia, CSTO Members Reject OPCW Draft Resolution On Syria - Envoy

PARIS (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 20th April, 2021) Russia and other Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) member states disagree with the draft resolution of the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), which proposed to declare that Syria has violated the Chemical Weapons Convention and deprive Damascus of its rights and privileges in the organization, Russian Permanent Representative to the OPCW Alexander Shulgin said on Tuesday.

"This organization [CSTO] would like to rid the world of chemical weapons and would like to make sure that these agents are never seen again. The parties to our organization are very concerned about what is happening within the OPCW and in particular the processes which are undermining the effective work of this organization. We cannot agree with the draft decision on assessing the possession and use of chemical weapons by the SAR during the CSP25," Shulgin stated.

He also stressed that the draft resolution is based on the biased findings of the Investigation and Identification Team (IIT), an illegitimate body that Russia believes was established in violation of the Convention with the aim of exerting political pressure on certain parties. Shulgin added that approving the resolution would legitimize the ITT's "spurious" conclusions.

At the 25th session of the OPCW general conference, France presented a draft resolution on Syria proposing to deprive the country of its rights and privileges in the organization over alleged violations of the CWC based on the ITT reports. According to the most recent report published on April 12, there were "reasonable grounds" to believe that the Syrian air force dropped a chlorine bomb on the city of Saraqib in the northwestern Idlib province in February 2018.