United Nations (Associated Press)-International Chemical Weapons Supervisory Agency requests more information Syria Regarding the report of two chlorine cylinders destroyed recently, these Fatal attacks in 2018 In the town of Douma, Syria-Several members of the UN Security Council responded to this request on Wednesday.
The Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons stated that the Syrian government sent a note to its secretariat on July 9th. The report stated that the two cylinders were destroyed in an airstrike on a Syrian military installation on June 8. Weapon production facility.
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Syrian state media reported on June 8 that Israeli planes attacked the Syrian capital near Damascus and the central province of Homs. The target was not disclosed.
The regulator stated that in November, these cylinders were “stored and inspected at another declared location about 60 kilometers (approximately 38 miles) from the site where they were reportedly destroyed”, and it has advised Syria to “do not open or move these gas cylinders”. bottle”. , Or change the container or its contents in any way without the prior written consent of the Secretariat. “
The agency stated that it had never received notification that the cylinders had been moved before being told that they had been destroyed. It requested Syria on July 15 to provide “all relevant information regarding the movement of the two cylinders and any wreckage”.
The regulator’s report added that during the November inspection of the gas cylinders, inspectors were ordered to transport them to the organization’s headquarters in The Hague, the Netherlands, but Syrian officials did not allow them to be transported out of the country.
The report that the head of UN disarmament affairs submitted to the UN Security Council on Wednesday also requested more information and documents on the damage to production facilities on June 8.
British Ambassador to the United Nations Barbara Woodward (Barbara Woodward) told the Security Council: “This incident not only shows that Syria failed to comply with the important requirements of the OPCW, but also interfered with the core of the ongoing high-profile investigation without authorization. evidence.”
French deputy ambassador Nathalie Broadhurst called the unauthorized movement and destruction of the two chlorine gas cylinders “very worrying.”
The Syrian ambassador, Bassam Sabbagh, told the Security Council that Israel’s previously announced attacks on chemical weapons production facilities resulted in the destruction of many rooms, fuel and “and two cylinders suspected of being involved in the Duma incident.”
He criticized the OPCW report for not condemning the attack and “only focusing on the technical aspects.” He accused the OPCW of “politicizing” and becoming “a tool in the hands of certain countries.”
Sabbagh said Syria refused to allow these cylinders to be removed from the country because they were part of a criminal investigation and “lawful physical evidence related to alleged incidents of terrorist use of chemical weapons and killings. Innocent civilians.”
The OPCW said in 2019 that its investigators found “reasonable reasons” that chlorine was used as a weapon in the attack on the Duma on the outskirts of Damascus. Medical staff said that the attack caused more than 40 deaths, as many as 100. Injuried.
When the attack occurred in April 2018, the Duma was controlled by the rebels but was besieged by pro-government forces. A week later, the attack triggered missile attacks on Syrian government targets by the United States, Britain, and France, who blamed the Duma incident on the government of President Bashar al-Assad.
Syria denies launching the Duma attack.
Russia’s deputy UN ambassador, Dmitry Polyansky, once again accused the OPCW and its head of “consisting facts with the conclusion that Damascus is guilty”. He claimed that “there is obvious manipulation in the Duma report.”
Polianski said that the OPCW’s report focused on Syria’s movement of cylinders without any assessment of air strikes, which is “very strange”.
“Even if the Syrian side does transfer them to its own territory, we understand that Syria is fully entitled to do so. Does this mean that air strikes are reasonable and that this is essentially an act of aggression against a sovereign country?” Polianski asked road.
© 2021 Canadian Press
