Mr. President,

We thank High Representative Nakamitsu for her briefing.

We commend the independence, professionalism and impartiality of the OPCW Technical Secretariat.

The OPCW Director General published his 105th report last month.

The report demonstrates that the outstanding issues in relation to the Syrian regime’s initial and subsequent declarations persist.

The OPCW Secretariat is still waiting for responses to its inquiries sent to the regime in October 2020 and July 2021 regarding its chemical weapons production facilities and chlorine cylinders used in the attack in Douma in 2018.

The regime continues to use delaying tactics not to meet with the Declaration Assessment Team (DAT) by refusing to issue visa to one team member and setting the exclusion of the same DAT expert as a condition for holding the 25th round of consultations.

We expect concrete action from the Council to ensure that the regime fully cooperates with the DAT and immediately declares the full extent of its chemical weapons programme to the OPCW.

Mr. President,

The current investigations by the Fact Finding Mission (FFM) and the Investigation and Identification Team (IIT) are important to establish the truth about chemical weapons use in Syria.

Türkiye notes the reports of the FFM, establishing the use of chemicals as weapons in Marea on September 1st of 2015 and in Kafr-Zeita on October 1st of 2016.

We await the results of the further investigations carried out by the IIT regarding those attacks, for the identification of the perpetrators.

Mr. President,

Let me reiterate that the use of chemical weapons by anyone, anywhere and under any circumstances is a grave violation of international law.

We strongly condemn the repeated and well-documented use of chemical weapons by the Assad regime against its own people.

It is our collective responsibility to ensure accountability for these egregious crimes committed in Syria. We owe this to the victims.

It is high time that the members of this Council left their political differences behind and acted in accordance with international law.

The Syrian regime must be urged to cooperate with the OPCW without any further delay.

This is key to prevent the recurrence of chemical weapons use, be it in Syria or elsewhere in the world.

Ending impunity is critical if we are to achieve peace in Syria.

Thank you.