DISINFO: The West uses the OPCW to manipulate facts
SUMMARY
It has been possible to deprive Syria of its rights and privileges within the organisation through manipulation of facts, blackmail and intimidation from some countries. The United States, France, the United Kingdom and other countries are continually simmering plans to eliminate the government of Bashar al-Assad, whom they hate, from the political arena.
Russia and the Syrian government have repeatedly accused the OPCW of bias in investigating incidents in Syria and questioned the findings of the Technical Secretariat.
The Syrian authorities state they have never used chemical weapons against civilians or terrorists and that the country's chemical arsenal has been withdrawn from Syria under OPCW control.
Russia admitted back in April that the OPCW is preparing a new pseudo-investigation to accuse the Syrian authorities of using chemical weapons. The initiative launched by the West to deprive Syria of its rights within the OPCW is staged.
RESPONSE
Recurrent disinformation message about Chemical Weapons in the Syrian conflict and attempting to discredit the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW).
In an unprecedented vote on April 21 2021, member states of the global chemical weapons watchdog suspended Syria’s voting rights at the organisation as punishment for the repeated use of toxic gas by Damascus. The vote, which required a two-thirds majority to pass, marked the first time a member state of the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons has been hit with such a sanction.
The German NGO GPPi has collected data on 349 confirmed incidents with the use of various types of chemical weapons. In almost all cases, Syrian regime forces can be tied to the attacks.
As early as February 2020, the Russia Centre for Syria Reconciliation (see our article The Least Accurate Oracle in the World) was pushing the story, without providing evidence, that a chemical false flag attack in Idlib was being prepared by the White Helmets. The White Helmets have been repeatedly accused by the Syrian regime of being responsible for chemical attacks during the war in Syria in an attempt to shift blame for chemical attacks in Syria away from Damascus.
According to the OPCW's director-general, the organisation has been targeted by a disinformation campaign when the organisation was being granted new powers to assign blame for chemical attacks. 18 countries issued a joint statement, which called for an end to the unacceptable Russian defamation of the OPCW.
Read also related stories: OPCW is anti-Russian, OPCW's decision to restrict Syria's rights was absurd, The West is creating mechanisms in the OPCW to discredit unfavourable states, The West is using OPCW to throw baseless accusations at Syria.