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News ID: 86896
Publish Date : 25 January 2021 - 21:14

Russia Against Closed-Door UNSC Discussions on Syria Chemical File

MOSCOW (Dispatches) – Russia’s permanent representative to the UN has affirmed that his country will oppose any attempts to return to closed-door discussions on Syria’s chemical file at the United Nations Security Council.
"The United Kingdom, as President of the International Security Council, proposes to return next February to discussing this issue behind closed doors, i.e. without video conference and also without the participation of the representative of Syria, but we’ll oppose that,” Vassily Nebenzia told TASS Agency.
Nebenzia added "With our initiative, these sessions have become open, and we do not see why they should hide from the public community,” stressing that the international community must be aware of what is going on about the chemical file in Syria, so we will insist that the meeting be open.
The Syrian government surrendered its stockpiles of chemical weapons in 2013 to a joint mission led by the UN and the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), which oversaw the destruction of the weaponry.
However, Western governments and their allies have never stopped pointing the finger at Damascus whenever an apparent chemical attack has taken place.
Damascus has time and again strongly denied any use of chemical weapons, saying it is not in possession of such weapons and remains committed to cooperating with OPCW.
On January 5th, Syria condemned Western pressures which aim to force the OPCW and its member states to adopt a French-Western draft resolution that falsely claims its "Syria’s non-abidance” by the obligations according to the Chemical Weapons Convention.
Syria affirmed that any resolution that will be issued by the Executive Council based on the fabrications of the OPCW Investigation and Identification Team (IIT) is a politicized resolution aimed at accusing Syria of using chemical weapons and acquitting the terrorists and their sponsors.
Back in December, Syria also emphasized the necessity of closing its chemical file for good after it fulfilled all the obligations entailed by its accession to the Chemical Weapons Convention 2013.