DISINFO: The West is turning the UN into a tool to defame Syria
SUMMARY
Western countries have turned the Security Council into a tool to smear Syria.
Syria has repeatedly expressed its assertion that it no longer possesses any of these (chemical) weapons... and has fully implemented its obligations under its accession to the Chemical Weapons Convention in 2013.
RESPONSE
Recurrent disinformation message attempting to discredit the UN and the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), concerning the usage of Chemical Weapons in the Syrian conflict.
The portrayal of the Security Council and OPCW (where Russia is a member) as a pawn in geopolitical designs started around mid-2018, when the organisation was being granted new powers to assign blame for chemical attacks, especially in the Syrian Douma. 18 countries issued a joint statement, which called for an end to the unacceptable vilification of the OPCW.
An investigation mechanism set up by the OPCW has twice blamed Syrian regime forces for chemical attacks. On 12 April 2021, it said it found “reasonable grounds to believe” that a Syrian air force military helicopter dropped a chlorine cylinder on a Syrian town in 2018, causing12 people to become ill.
On 8 April 2020, the team found reasonable grounds to believe that the Syrian Arab Air Force was responsible for attacks using chlorine and the nerve agent sarin in March 2017 in the town of Latamneh.
On another note, the OPCW inspectors could only authenticate that the declared chemical weapons by the Syrian government had been destroyed in 2014, even though there were suspicions in the West that Syria had hidden as much as 10% of its stockpile.
In the OPCW 85th report mentioned in the article, it is clearly pointed out that Damascus “has yet to provide sufficient technical information or explanations [with regard to the finding of a Schedule 2.B.04 chemical] that would enable the Secretariat to close this issue”.
Read similar cases in our database claiming that OPCW reports are made from the information provided by terrorists; or that chemical attacks in Syria have been staged and filmed by Western media; or that the West is using OPCW to throw baseless accusations at Syria; or that OPCW is an American tool; or that the OPCW's decision to restrict Syria's rights was absurd; or that the West is using OPCW to throw baseless accusations at Syria.