The Hague: Qatar has confirmed full support to the fact-finding mission of the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) to continue its work in Syria, calling on concerned parties, especially the Syrian regime, to cooperate with the mission.
This came in a speech delivered by Khalid bin Fahad Al Khater, Qatar’s Permanent Representative to OPCW and Ambassador to the Netherlands, during an extraordinary session of OPCW Executive Council to consider reports of the mission on the use of chemical weapons in Syria.
Al Khater praised OPCW efforts with respect to the destruction of Syria’s declared chemical weapons production and expressed Qatar’s support for its role in investigation into the use of chemical weapons against civilians in Syria.
Despite these efforts, doubts and concerns exist on the dismantling of the Syrian chemical weapons, especially gaps and contradictions in Syrian declarations and continued use of chlorine gas as a weapon against innocent civilians, Al Khater said.
He said Qatar has been informed on latest reports dated October 29 of the mission, which said chemical weapons have been used continuously and systematically from March to May 2015 in the province of Idlib and in August in the town of Mare. He expressed Qatar’s concern about results reached and its strong condemnation of the use of chemical weapons by any party under any circumstances, which is reprehensible and contrary to international law.
Al Khater reminded the audience of results of reports of the mission last past year on the use of chlorine as a weapon in the villages of Talmenes, Al Tamanah and Kafr Zita from April to August.
He said Syria has been given an exceptional opportunity and the organisation and its member states exert support for Syria to get rid of its chemical weapons in a specified period of time, but continued procrastination should not be transformed to the strategy of the imposition of a fait accompli. He expressed confidence in the United Nations Security Council Resolution 2235 (2015) on establishing a mechanism for joint investigation between the UN and OPCW to identify the perpetrators using chemical weapons in Syria and bring them to justice.
QNA
