United Nations published this video item, entitled “Syria: Use of Chemical Weapons and Implementation of Resolution 2118 – Security Council Briefing” – below is their description.
Briefing by Thomas Markham, Deputy to the High Representative for Disarmament Affairs in Syria on the situation regrading the Security Council resolution 2118 (2013) and the relevant provisions of the OPCW Executive Council in relation to the elimination of the Syrian chemical weapons programme, during the Security Council 8830th meeting.
The Deputy to the High Representative for Disarmament Affairs, Thomas Markram, today (4 Aug) told the Security Council that “although almost eight years have now passed since the adoption of resolution 2118, there’s still work to be done before this resolution can be fully considered implemented.”
Markram, briefing the Council on behalf of High Representative Izumi Nakamitsu, said that “as long as the use of chemical weapons continues, or the treat of their use remains, we must retain our focus on preventing these threats.”
Calling for unity in the Security Council, he said, “the use of these weapons must always be seen as a clear violation of a deeply held taboo.”
In her address to the Council, United States Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield said, “sadly, the Assad regime, supported by Russia, continues to ignore calls from the international community to fully disclose and verifiably destroy its chemical weapons programs. Instead, the Assad regime continues to deliberately delay and obstruct” the work of the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons’ (OPCW) Declaration Assessment Team.
The Security Council, Thomas-Greenfield stressed, “must call out atrocities and hold those who use chemical weapons accountable.” Without such accountability, she added, “lasting peace in Syria will remain out of reach.”
The Russian Federation’s Deputy Permanent Representative, Dmitry Polyansky, emphasized that the Council “has never delegated its exclusive attribution powers as defined by the charter neither to the OPCW, nor of course, to its technical secretariat.”
Polyansky said, the reports of the “illegitimate” Investigation and Identification Team (IIT) report “are in violation” of the Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC) norms regarding the methodology and data collection.
He said, “they are biased in nature and pursue just one goal, not to restore the real picture of events, but rather to make the fact fit the conclusion about Damascus’ guilt, in other words, essentially to carry out a political order.”
For his part, Syrian Ambassador Bassam al-Sabbagh said, “this ailment of politization suffered by the OPCW has pushed it further away from its technical nature and made it lose its credibility, and instead of it being an honest guardian of the implementation of the CWC, it has become a tool in the hands of some countries to use it against other countries parties to the agreement. Therefore, it has to be put back on the right track and return to its role as being a key and unbiased pilar in the chemical weapons non-proliferation system.”
The Security Council unanimously adopted resolution 2118 on 27 September 2013, determining that the use of chemical weapons anywhere constituted a threat to international peace and security, and calling for the full implementation of the decision of the OPCW which contains special procedures for the expeditious and verifiable destruction of Syria’s chemical weapons.
United Nations YouTube Channel
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