Madam President,

Let me start by sincerely thanking you and other Council members as well as Ms Nakamitsu, Mr Arias and Mr Onate for their expressions of condolences, support and solidarity at this difficult time.

We thank Under-Secretary-General Nakamitsu, Director General Arias and Coordinator Onate for their briefings.

We commend the independence, impartiality and professionalism upheld by OPCW’s Technical Secretariat.

Madam President,

OPCW Investigation and Identification Team (IIT) was established with a mandate to identify those responsible for the chemical weapons attacks in Syria.

Türkiye co-sponsored the decision granting this mandate to OPCW in 2018.

Last month, in its third report, the IIT concluded that Syrian regime is the perpetrator of the chlorine gas attack, which took place in Douma on 7 April 2018.

This follows IIT’s previous two reports which respectively confirmed the responsibility of the regime in three chemical weapons attacks in Ltamenah in March 2017 and the chlorine gas attack in Saraqib in February 2018.

The use of chemical weapons is a grave violation of international law and unacceptable under any circumstances.

Türkiye strongly condemns the repeated use of chemical weapons in Syria.

We will continue to support the efforts, first and foremost by UN and OPCW, aiming at ensuring accountability in Syria.

This is our collective responsibility also to hundreds of innocent lives lost due to the chemical weapons attacks in this country.

Madam President,

We have heard from Under-Secretary-General Nakamitsu that the outstanding issues in relation to the Syrian regime’s initial and subsequent declarations persist.

We once again call on the Syrian regime to fully cooperate with the OPCW Technical Secretariat and provide the necessary information, as they are obligated to do so under the Convention.

Madam President,

At the Council sessions held in recent months under this agenda item, we have been emphasizing the significance of continued regular consideration of the Syrian chemical weapons program by the Council.

The recent developments, including the third IIT report only affirmed this necessity.

Therefore, as a neighboring country, we urge the Council to maintain this crucial item in its monthly calendar.

I thank you.