Thank you, Mr President.
It is regrettable that serious discussions about the use of chemical weapons were derailed at the beginning of this meeting by the presidency. With regards to procedure, we concur with the substantive statements made today by UK and Germany.
I thank the High Representative Izumi Nakamitsu for her briefing on the implementation of the Security Council resolution 2118.
We note that the OPCW Director-General’s monthly report, once again, states that the outstanding issues relating to Syria´s chemical weapons declaration continue to be unsolved. This means that after six years, we still lack the assurance that Syria has declared and destroyed all of its chemical weapons and their production facilities. We cannot be sure that new attacks will not happen again. In fact, that risk remains high. Independent UN and OPCW fact-finding missions have confirmed the use of chemical weapons in Syria on numerous occasions since Syria provided the declaration. The UN-OPCW Joint Investigative Mechanism and the OPCW Investigation and Identification Team have confirmed now in seven occasions the use of chemical weapons by the Assad regime against Syrian people.
The Syrian regime’s non-compliance with its international obligations, hence, continues to pose a direct threat to the Syrian people and the international peace and security. In these circumstances, the Security Council has a responsibility to act and respond.
Mr President,
Estonia welcomes the OPCW Executive Council 9th of July decision, which addressed in a responsible and robust manner Syria’s non-compliance under the Chemical Weapons Convention and provided a deadline for Syria to comply with its obligations. We are concerned to hear that there has been no reply yet from the Syrian Arab Republic regarding the fulfilment of obligations, set by the Executive Council decision. We call on Syria to comply with the decision on time.
Mr President,
In addition to Syria’s blatant disregard to its international obligations, we now face another challenge to the chemical weapons non-proliferation regime and the implementation of resolution 2118. I am referring to the systematic and targeted disinformation campaign to discredit and undermine the OPCW Technical Secretariat and its investigative mechanisms.
It is regretful that instead of focusing on discussing in the Council on how to move forward with accountability measures and put an end to impunity for committing these horrific crimes, the Russian Federation makes every effort to steer that focus and responsibility elsewhere. This happened today and it was in full display during the last week’s Arria meeting, where the organisers and their chosen briefers provided us with distorted facts and narratives on Syria´s chemical weapons programs and on specific incidents. At the same time, our Russian and Chinese colleagues decided not to attend the Security Council meeting in May. The participation of the OPCW Director-General Arias and IIT coordinator Ambassador Oñate, provided an opportunity to learn more about the first IIT report.
The question has already echoed in the past Security Council meetings, but I will ask it again: Whom does this disinformation campaign serve? Whom does it serve to purposefully undermine the most competent organization to deal with chemical weapons? The answer is quite clear – the ones who want to cover up their crimes or of their allies; the ones who use or plan to use chemical weapons and want to get away with it with impunity. It is for their benefit to sow distrust and confusion so that condemnation, accountability and robust international response became more difficult.
Finally, Estonia has full trust in the professional, impartial and independent work of the OPCW Technical Secretariat and its investigative mechanisms. We call on the Syrian regime to cooperate with them actively and fully. We also call on the Russian Federation to disclose, urgently, fully and in a transparent manner, the circumstances of the poisoning of Mr Navalny with a chemical nerve agent of the Novichok group and to inform the Security Council in this regard.
I thank you.
