Ambassador Sabbagh: Syria has warned that the wrong course of the OPCW teams regarding the alleged Douma incident will lead to false conclusions

New York-SANA

Syria's permanent representative to the United Nations, Ambassador Bassam Sabbagh, affirmed that Syria has repeatedly warned that the wrong and unprofessional path followed by the fact-finding mission of the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons on the alleged Douma incident will lead to null conclusions, expressing regret that the mission did not correct its working methods despite all Invitations were made to it to abide by the rules stipulated in the ban agreement and the document of terms of reference that was agreed upon with Syria.

Sabbagh said during a session of the Security Council today on the “chemical file” in Syria that Syria took a strategic decision in 2013 to accede to the Chemical Weapons Convention, and completely destroyed its stockpile of these weapons in a record time despite the difficult circumstances it was going through. The United Nations and the Organization for Prohibition confirmed this matter, indicating that Syria cooperated openly and transparently with the organization and facilitated the visits of its various teams, and was keen to work with it in order to correct the wrong working methods that affected the credibility of its reports and kept it away from its professional role and technical mandate entrusted to it by the agreement.

Sabbagh explained that Syria has always and repeatedly affirmed its firm position in condemning the use of chemical weapons by anyone, at any time, place and under any circumstances, and immediately after the allegations emerged about the alleged incident of using chemical weapons in Douma on April 7, 2018, it initiated a request The director-general of the organization is to send a fact-finding mission to investigate this incident, whose arrival in Damascus was delayed by a whole week.

Syria's permanent representative to the United Nations pointed out that the decision adopted by the fourth special session of the Conference of the States Parties to the Ban Treaty on June 27, 2018, according to which the so-called "Investigation and Identification Team" was established constituted a dangerous turning point in the history of the organization, and clearly reflected the situation The great politicization of the United States and its Western allies plunged the technical organization into a political labyrinth that undermined its credibility.

Sabbagh indicated that less than half of the member states supported this decision, or only 82 out of 193 countries, and ignoring the positions of the countries that voted against it, abstained from voting, or was absent from it due to the flagrant manipulation of the texts of the ban agreement and the clear violation of its provisions by assigning an unstated responsibility. In the agreement, the establishment of this team was made illegal, prompting Syria and other countries to declare that they do not recognize the illegal team nor the reports that will be issued by it later.

Sabbagh pointed out that the Syrian and Russian missions to the Organization for Prohibition in The Hague brought 17 witnesses from the site of the alleged incident in Douma to the organization's headquarters on April 26, 2018 to testify about the alleged chemical attack, during which they refuted all allegations that were fabricated by terrorist groups and their supporters, stressing It is a fabricated play, but the fact-finding mission did not interview them and their testimonies were not heard.

The permanent representative of Syria to the United Nations stated that many academics, independent military experts, and specialists from the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, led by Jose Bustani, the first director general of the organization, and Inspector Ian Henderson, who led the team that participated in the investigation of the alleged Douma incident, and others, presented an accurate scientific analysis. They professionally refuted the conclusions contained in the report of the fact-finding mission, and proved that this report is unprofessional, impartial and unfair, in addition to the British Daily Mail publishing a report that included an acknowledgment by the BBC station that the documentary film that was shown on its channel “Radio 4” The alleged incident contained errors and false allegations. The independent Canadian journalist Aaron Matte, who visited the site of the alleged incident in Douma, provided factual reports on the fabrication of this incident.

Sabbagh stressed that the wrong and unprofessional path followed by the fact-finding mission will naturally lead to invalid conclusions, expressing regret that the mission did not correct its wrong and unprofessional methods of work that it followed in its investigations into the alleged incident, despite all the calls made to it to abide by the rules stipulated in the Convention. And the terms of reference document agreed upon with Syria.

Sabbagh explained that collecting evidence that does not have the slightest level of credibility, taking samples that lack a legal chain of custody, and relying on suspicious open sources or fabricated and misleading information provided by terrorist organizations and their affiliates, the so-called “White Helmets” group sponsored by Western intelligence services, cannot be considered scientific or professional grounds and cannot lead to objective conclusions.

Sabbagh pointed out that the so-called “investigation and identification team” took years to reach a conclusion that the countries of the tripartite aggression against Syria “the United States, Britain and France” promoted after hours of fabricating the alleged incident in Douma, and then jumped to use it as a pretext for aggression against several military and civilian sites. In Syria on April 14, 2018, and to justify this aggression, and to impose more sanctions and unjust siege on the Syrian people, stressing that this aggression is clear evidence that the alleged Douma incident is the product of a play fabricated by these countries to strike the Syrian Arab Army forces, at a time when He was making progress in his fight against terrorism, targeting terrorists' dens and fortifications with focused and accurate strikes using his conventional weapons.

Sabbagh reaffirmed Syria's non-recognition and complete rejection of the so-called "investigation and identification team" and its reports, including its erroneous conclusions. By politicizing this file and manipulating the reports issued in this regard to serve its agendas.

Sabbagh recalled Washington's play to justify the invasion of Iraq, saying: 20 years ago, specifically on February 5, 2003, Colin Powell, then US Secretary of State, sat in front of the Council to play a representative role in a play of deception prepared in advance to justify the US invasion of Iraq under the pretext that it possesses chemical and biological weapons of mass destruction, and it turned out later That it was all just baseless lies that even Powell himself described what he said before the council as a “disgrace.”

Sabbagh added: What today is like yesterday... the same play, the same lies, the same mastermind, but this time the target is Syria under a similar pretext, which is its possession and use of chemical weapons, so the world must learn from the lessons of the past and not again allow the United States and its allies to play the misleading game. again.

Sabbagh stressed that the crimes committed by the United States in Iraq do not fall under the statute of limitations, and it would have been better for those who talk about accountability and arouse enthusiasm about it to demand that the United States be held accountable for these crimes, and that they have the audacity to demand accountability from countries that provided all forms of support to terrorist organizations in Syria and enabled them. From the possession and use of weapons and toxic chemicals, and to have the same zeal to hold the countries of aggression accountable for the crimes they have committed against the Syrian people and their destruction of Syrian cities over the heads of their inhabitants.