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Syria: US, Allies Have Reduced OPCW into Their Instruments

Friday, 09 July 2021 6:37 AM 

This file picture shows the headquarters of the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), in The Hague, the Netherlands. (Photo by The Associated Press)

The chairwoman of the Syrian mission to the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) says the United States and its allies have lowered the status of the international watchdog, and turned it into a political tool to level baseless accusations against Damascus and exert pressure on it.

Addressing the 97th session of the Executive Council of the OPCW, Rania al-Refaei stated that anti-Syria claims are meant to advance the agendas of certain countries, and implement the plots hatched by terror outfits.

She categorically dismissed allegations that the Damascus government has chemical weapons in its possession, terming such accusations as “spurious and unfounded.”

Refaei said Syria joined the Chemical Weapons Convention on October 14, 2013, and has stood fully committed to all its obligations ever since despite the fact that the Arab country is facing a state of foreign-sponsored militancy, in which more than 400,000 terrorists from over 80 countries have been wreaking havoc against the Syrian government and nation.

Head of the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) has resorted to new falsehoods and fabrications to avoid accountability about his organization’s Syria cover-up scandal.

She said the actions of OPCW contradict the principles of professionalism, credibility, impartiality, and provisions of the Chemical Weapons Convention, since the United States has the largest chemical arsenal in the world and the munitions pose a grave threat to the international peace and security.

The OPCW teams, she said, have reduced to instruments, which simply draw up reports to curry favor with the countries controlling the organization, and help them present terrorists’ allegations as genuine documents in order to exert further pressure on Syria.

Back on April 15, Syrian Minister of Foreign Affairs and Expatriates Faisal Mekdad said the United States and its allies have turned the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons into a tool to pursue their political goals against Damascus.

“Syria and many other countries have acknowledged that the states which supported and funded armed terrorist groups in Syria, particularly the United States, France, Germany and Britain, will use the Syrian chemical file and the OPCW to achieve their hostile goals against Syria,” he said.

On April 14, 2018, the US, Britain, and France carried out a string of airstrikes against Syria over a suspected chemical weapons attack on the city of Douma.

That alleged attack was reported by the so-called civil defense group White Helmets, which published videos showing them purportedly treating survivors.

The White Helmets group, which claims to be a humanitarian NGO, is known for its coordination with terror outfits in Syria to carry out staged chemical attacks in order to incriminate Syrian government forces and fabricate pretexts for military strikes by a US-led military coalition present in Syria since 2014.

Washington and its allies blamed Damascus for the Douma attack, an allegation strongly rejected by the Syrian government.

The Western media and governments have repeatedly accused the Syrian government of using chemical weapons against its own citizens in the war against terrorists.

This is while Syria surrendered its stockpile of chemical weapons in 2014 to a joint mission led by the United States and the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), which oversaw the destruction of the weaponry. It has also consistently denied using chemical weapons.