Mr. President,

We thank High Representative Nakamitsu for her briefing.

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

We appreciate the OPCW Director-General’s efforts to establish a direct line of contact in order to resolve outstanding issues.

As reported yet again by the OPCW, the gaps, discrepancies and inconsistencies in the chemical weapons declaration of Assad regime continue and the OPCW still cannot consider that declaration as accurate and complete.

The regime is obstructing the work of Investigation and Identification Team by not issuing visas.

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

We call on the Syrian regime to fully cooperate with the OPCW Technical Secretariat and provide necessary information, as it is obligated under the Chemical Weapons Convention.

Mr. President,

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

Independent scientific investigations have established that the Assad regime is responsible for resorting to chemical weapons against its own population on multiple occasions.

We are looking forward to the completion of ongoing investigations, especially the next IIT report on Douma attack of 2018.

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.

It is our collective responsibility to ensure accountability for the chemical weapons use in Syria.

A genuine political reconciliation in this country would only be possible through justice and accountability.

It is high time that the members of this Council left their political differences behind and took steps to enforce the Council’s own resolution, namely resolution 2118 of 2013.

Ending impunity is imperative also to honour the hundreds of innocent lives lost due to the chemical weapons attacks, during the conflict in Syria.

Thank you.