Iran Urges UNSC to Support Cooperative Relations Between OPCW, Syria

During Thursday's Security Council meeting on chemical weapons in Syria, Amir Saeed Iravani emphasized Syria's efforts to implement its obligations under the Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC), emphasizing that a politicized approach and double standards in relation to the Syrian chemical file will only diverge technical-oriented discussions and can undermine the UN Security Council's credibility and authority.

The senior Iranian diplomat went on to say that, as the primary victim of the most systematic use of chemical weapons in modern history, the Islamic Republic has always condemned the use of chemical weapons by any party, anywhere, and under any circumstances.

"Our country also believes that the use of such inhumane weapons poses a serious threat to international peace and security and should not be tolerated," Iravani said.

"The only way to ensure that chemical weapons are never used again is to eliminate them all globally, and to take all necessary precautions to prevent the production of such weapons of mass destruction," he added.

Iran's ambassador to the UN stated that his country has repeatedly emphasized the importance of full, effective, and non-discriminatory implementation of the CWC.

"We believe that any attempt to politicize the implementation of the Chemical Weapons Convention and exploit the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) for political purposes jeopardizes the convention's and the organization's legitimacy," Iravani said.

"We encourage the continuation of communications and interactions between the OPCW and the Syrian Arab Republic, and appreciate the Syrian government having submitted the 166th monthly report to the OPCW director general [Fernando Arias]," the top Iranian diplomat continued. Syria has expanded on the details of its actions to eliminate chemical weapons and production facilities in the report."

Iravani expressed optimism that the upcoming meeting between Syrian Foreign Minister Faisal Mekdad and Arias would help resolve the two sides' outstanding issues.

The Western media and governments have repeatedly accused Syria's government of using chemical weapons against its own citizens as part of its counter-terrorism campaign.

This is while Syria surrendered its stockpile of chemical weapons in 2014 to a joint mission led by the United States and the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), which oversaw the destruction of the weaponry. It has also consistently denied using chemical weapons.

On April 14, 2018, the US, Britain, and France carried out a string of airstrikes against Syria over a suspected chemical weapons attack on the city of Douma.

That alleged attack was reported by the so-called civil defense group White Helmets, which published videos showing them purportedly treating survivors.

The White Helmets group, which claims to be a humanitarian NGO, is known for its coordination with terror outfits in Syria to carry out staged chemical attacks in order to incriminate Syrian government forces and fabricate pretexts for military strikes by a US-led military coalition present in Syria since 2014.

Washington and its allies blamed Damascus for the Douma attack, an allegation strongly rejected by the Syrian government.