UN Security Council Consultation on the Middle East (Syria chemical weapons)

UNITED NATIONS SECURITY COUNCIL CONSULTATIONS ON THE MIDDLE EAST (SYRIAN CHEMICAL WEAPONS PROGRAMME)

Colleague Representatives,
I have the honour to deliver this joint statement on behalf of the A3, comprising Gabon, Kenya and my own country Ghana. We thank High Representative for Disarmament Affairs, Ms. Izumi Nakamitsu, for her briefing and welcome the participation in this meeting of the representatives of Syrian Arab Republic, Islamic Republic of Iran and Turkiye. We welcome the 109th report of the OPCW and the submission of the 107th monthly report by the Syrian National Authorities on the country’s chemical weapons programme. We however remain concerned that there has not been tangible progress by the stakeholders in their attempts to fully address the issue in accordance with the Chemical Weapons Convention. This calls into question the propriety of the frequency with which the Council meets on the Syria chemical weapons file, when little to no headway is made in dealing with the issue.
 
We join other members of this Council in calling for a review of the status quo to enable us focus attention and resources on the other existing challenges facing the Syrian people. As we reiterate our support for resolution 2118 (2013) of this Council, we note with regret that there continue to be significant divergence between the positions of the OPCW and the Syrian authorities regarding the outstanding gaps, inconsistencies and discrepancies related to the destruction the country’s chemical weapons. It bears repeating that aside being a clear and egregious violation of international law, the use of chemical weapons poses serious danger to the health of civilians and a grave threat to international peace and security. In this regard, failure by the international community to fully and verifiably destroy all chemical weapons of the Syrian Arab Republic, will be setting a bad precedent as far as the production and use of chemical weapons are concerned.
 
More so, the international community must assume responsibility for a definite closure of the matter to help curtail the likelihood of the production and possible use of chemical weapons anywhere by anyone, under any
circumstances, including by rogue elements. Colleague Representatives, On a positive note, we welcome the re initiation of communication between the focal points of the Syrian Arab Republic and the OPCW as a step in the
right direction. It is our considered view that such cooperation between the Syrian national authority and the Secretariat of the OPCW, will facilitate the conclusive resolution of the outstanding issues, including, the organization of the 25th round of consultations with the Declaration Assessment Team (DAT).
 
We therefore call on the two sides to expedite action on the the modalities for convening the high-level in-person meeting between the Syrian Foreign Minister and the Director-General of the OPCW, to help give the needed impetus to the efforts towards satisfactory resolution of all the outstanding issues.
 
Colleague Representatives,
In concluding, we call for increased cooperation between the OPCW Secretariat and the authorities of the Syrian Arab Republic in order to make tangible progress on the issue.
 
I thank you for the attention.