Note: A full summary of today’s Security Council meeting will be made available upon completion.
Briefing
IZUMI NAKAMITSU, Under-Secretary-General and High Representative for Disarmament Affairs, noting that her office has been in regular contact with its counterparts in the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) Technical Secretariat on activities related to Security Council resolution 2118 (2013), said that the Declaration Assessment Team has continued its efforts to clarify all outstanding issues. Unfortunately, all efforts by the Technical Secretariat to organize the next round of consultations with Syria continue to be unsuccessful. The Secretariat has provided Syria with the list of pending declarations and other documents and proposed, in May 2022, to address the declaration-related issues through exchange of correspondence, but it still has not received any of the requested documents, including the complete declaration of activities at the Scientific Studies and Research Centre and the declaration of quantities of nerve agents produced at one chemical weapons production facility that was declared by Syria as never having been used to produce chemical weapons, she added.
In a further attempt to implement its mandate, the OPCW Technical Secretariat proposed to deploy a reduced team comprising several members of the Declaration Assessment Team to conduct limited in-country activities. The first such deployment took place from 17 to 22 January, and the second took place from 12 to 19 April. The outcome of the first deployment was reported to States parties to the Convention on the Prohibition of the Development, Production, Stockpiling and Use of Chemical Weapons and on their Destruction States Parties in March and the outcomes of the second deployment will be reported to the OPCW Executive Council in due course. Stressing the need for full cooperation by Syria, she said that considering the identified gaps, inconsistencies and unresolved discrepancies, the OPCW Technical Secretariat assesses that Syria’s declaration cannot be considered accurate and complete. Turning to the inspections of the Barzah and Jamrayah facilities of the Scientific Studies and Research Centre, she said, the Technical Secretariat continues to plan the next round of inspections, to be held in 2023. The Secretariat is also awaiting information related to the unauthorized movement of the two cylinders related to the chemical weapon incident that took place in Douma on 7 April 2018.
Noting the extension of the Tripartite Agreement concluded among OPCW, United Nations Office for Project Services (UNOPS) and Syria up to and including 30 June, she added the fact-finding mission continues to study all available information related to allegations of the use of chemical weapons in Syria and is currently preparing upcoming deployments. Further, the Investigation and Identification Team also continues its investigations into incidents in which chemical weapons were used or likely used. Drawing attention to the fifth Review Conference of the Chemical Weapons Convention, which will take place next week, she said the Conference is an important opportunity for States Parties to renew and strengthen their commitments to the Convention. Members of this Council must unite on this issue and show leadership in upholding the hard-won gains of that Convention, she underscored.
Statements
DMITRY A. POLYANSKIY (Russian Federation) emphasized that there has been no significant progress on the ground that would require the attention of the Council. The reason for today’s meeting is to allow Western delegations to repeat a series of anti-Syrian statements, he said, voicing concern that this “show” is affecting the Council’s credibility. By accusing Damascus of a lack of cooperation, the West is presenting groundless statements that there has been no progress on closing the Syrian chemical dossier. The understudy in this play is the OPCW Director-General, Fernando Arias, who not only has not visited the country, but also stated that he has no desire to do so. Moscow does not recognize the outcomes of the illegitimate Investigation and Identification Team established in violation of the principle of consensus and article 15 of the Chemical Weapons Convention. “Our Western colleagues play deaf and dumb when it suits them,” he asserted, noting that their only goal is to cover up the manipulations of the Technical Secretariat, especially regarding the 2015 sham incident in Duma. Meanwhile, he continued, OPCW has turned into “an obedient instrument in the hands of the West”.
ROBERT A. WOOD (United States) stressed that fulsome consultations with the OPCW Declaration Assessment Team remain necessary because Syria will not fully disclose and verifiably eliminate its chemical weapons programme. It has only been through that team’s diligent and thorough efforts that the regime has been forced to reveal on seven separate occasions more and more of its chemical weapons programme, he pointed out. Noting also the regime’s refusal to allow the lead technical expert to deploy to its territory, he said the Declaration Assessment Team is currently able to carry out only limited in-country activities, undermining the effectiveness of its visits. “Russia’s shameless shielding of Syria’s defiant behaviour enables the Assad regime and leaves the Syrian people facing the prospect of further chemical-weapons attacks,” he underscored. Condemning in the strongest possible terms Damascus’ repeated use of chemical weapons against Syrian civilians, he called on the Syrian regime to amend its Chemical Weapons Convention declarations to make them accurate and complete and provide immediate and unfettered access to OPCW staff.
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